Mass Effect: Commander Shulon Shepard
by Nosaki 'Halfbreed' Shulon
Summary: I've never been good at summaries, like most people here say, but here is the gist of Shulon Shepard: Colony History, Sole Survivor Career and a Vanguard Class fighter. Hope someone out there enjoys this.
1. Chapter 1

_Well, here is the basic info that most people who are reading this and have played the games are wondering:_

_History: Colonist (born and raised on Mindoir, one of very few survivors after a slavers attacked)_

_Career: Sole Survivor (during a mission on Akuze, Thresher Maws attached and killed the entire squad)_

_Class: Vanguard (A mix of Biotic and Soldier abilities)_

_Looks: Shaved hair (it has that bit of regrowth to it), Shaved facial hair (has the little bit of regrowth as well), Dark brown hair and eye color, No scars. _

_Well, here it goes, enjoy! (i hope...)_

* * *

"Well, what about Shepard? He grew up in the colonies."

"He knows how tough it can be out there. His parents died when slavers attacked Mindoir."

"His whole unit died on Akuze, he could have some serious emotional scars."

"Is that the kind of person we want protecting the galaxy?"

"That's the only kind of person who can protect the galaxy."

"… I'll make the call."

* * *

In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time. They called it the greatest discovery in human history. The civilizations of the galaxy call it... Mass Effect.

* * *

In the black of space, with stars shinning from all angles, a lone starship makes its way to the outer edge of the Sol System. Were anyone to take notice, they would see, or more hear, that it was rather quiet compared to most other starships and cruisers. Also, if one were to look on its bulkhead, they would see the word 'Normandy' painted onto it.

_"Arcturus Prime Relay is in range. Initiating transmission sequence."_

Walking around the galaxy map on the CIC, avoiding running into people, Shepard made his way to the bridge, passing Navigator Pressly at his station, nodding in response to his greeting of, "Commander."

_"We're connected, Calculating transit mass and destination."_

Wearing his Systems Alliance basic N7 armor with standard weaponry, including sniper rifle, shot gun, assault rifle and pistol, Commander Shepard passed a few more crewmen and women doing their jobs to run the top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art, prototype vessel, preparing it for Faster Than Light speed. Excitement and nervousness could be felt around the room as the Normandy made her first jump.

_"Relay is hot. Acquiring approach vector. All stations secure for transit."_

Finally, Commander Shepard, XO of the SSV Normandy, stood at the helm, alongside a turian with a dark colored face with lighter color markings and black and dark red armor. The two of them stood behind the pilot of the ship, one Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau, whose voice had been sounding over the ship-wide speakers keeping the crew updated.

_"The board is green, approach has begun. Hitting the Mass Relay in three…"_

Commander Shepard looks towards the windows in the helm and noticed the large Mass Relay that Joker referred to, with the rings moving and the seeming blue aura building in the middle. He always found himself looking at them with a bit of awe. Despite how common it was for them to exist in the galaxy, he always wondered _how_ something like a Mass Relay existed.

_"Two…"_

The Commander turned back towards the front, feeling excited and nervous, as they approached the Relay. Despite how commonplace this had seemed to become for humanity and the other species in the galaxy, Shepard still couldn't help but appreciate that this was an incredible achievement to be able to do something like this. It was one of the few things the Commander felt he could take pride in, the fact that he was a part of something that included doing this.

_"… one."_

And with that, the Normandy made her jump through the Relay, traveling at amazing speeds. Inside of the Normandy, however, not much of anything was felt when the speed changed, and a slight ease of tension was felt and a nonexistent sigh of relief was let out after the Normandy's first Relay jump, and Shepard found himself settling down from a very slight adrenaline rush.

"Thrusters… check, navigation… check, internal emissions sink engaged, all systems online. Drift… just under fifteen hundred K," Joker finished reciting while leaning, confirming that the Normandy was meeting every expectation thus far.

The Turian behind him answered in an indifferent tone, "Fifteen hundred is good. Your Captain will be pleased." And with that, the turian turned away, leaving Joker, Commander Shepard and another, Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, at the helm.

Joker turned his head from looking at the turian's retreating back, muttering, "I hate that guy…"

Lieutenant Alenko turned his head towards Joker from his own monitoring station next to him. "Nihlus gave you a compliment, so… you hate him."

"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit after you go to the bathroom, that's good. I just jumped us half way across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead, that's incredible! Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having him onboard, call me paranoid," Joker finished, mumbling.

"Your paranoid. The Council helped fund this project, they have every right to keep an eye on their investment," the lieutenant responded.

"Yeah that is the official story, but only an idiot believes the official story," Joker replied.

Commander Shepard couldn't help but agree with the sarcastic helmsman, knowing the little bit he did about Spectres. "They don't send Spectres on shakedown runs."

Joker, encouraged, continued, "So there's obviously something else going on-"

The radio came to life, cutting Joker off,_ "Joker. Status report,"_ came the voice of Captain Anderson, of the Normandy.

"Just cleared the Mass Relay, Captain," said Joker, now sounding serious, "Stealth Systems engaged, everything looks solid."

_"Good. Find a comm. buoy and link us into the network. I want missions reports relayed back to the Alliance brass every hour."_

"Aye Aye, Captain," Joker replied, getting to work, "Better brace yourself, sir, I think Nihlus is heading your way."

Captain Anderson replied sharply, _"He's already here, Lieutenant."_ Joker winced from his own comment. _"Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the Communications room,"_ and with that, the line was cut.

"Did you get that, Commander?" Joker said over his shoulder.

"I'm on my way," Shepard replied. As he was walking away, he could hear Joker ask, "Is it just me, or is the Captain always sound a little pissed off?" Shepard couldn't help but smirk at hearing Alenko reply, "Only when he's talking with you, Joker."

As Commander Shepard walked along, he passed Pressly and heard him having a conversation with someone over the network comms._ "Just relax, Pressly, your gonna give yourself an ulcer."_ Curious, Shepard approached him.

As Pressly closed the comm. channel, he noticed Commander Shepard standing there and saluted him. "Congratulations, Commander, seems like the Normandy had a good first run."

Nodding to Pressly's terminal, Shepard guessed, "Having a chat about our turian guest?"

"Just talking with Adams in Engineering, sir, didn't mean to cause any trouble."

"Its alright, Pressly, I was just curious about what you had to say."

"Yes, sir. Its just, don't like having him onboard. I know the Council wants someone to watch over this joint project, but he's a Spectre. They don't send Spectre's on shakedowns."

Shepard nodded for Pressly to continue, saying, "I understand, I had the same thought not too long ago."

"If all we are supposed to be doing is testing the stealth systems, then why is Captain Anderson in charge? Captain Anderson and a Spectre? It just doesn't add up, they aren't telling us something," Pressly finished; glad to be able to talk it out for a bit.

"I'm going to talk to the Captain now, maybe I can find something out when I do," Shepard replied, nodding to Pressly and continuing his way. Right at the dividing wall between the CIC and the Communications room, Commander Shepard noticed a young marine, Richard Jenkins, if he remembered right, talking with the Normandy's doctor, Dr. Chakwas. He was going to just go past them, but then he remembered that Jenkins was from Eden Prime, their intended destination. Figuring it wouldn't hurt to get more intel on where they were going, and maybe finding out why a Spectre was sent to come along, the Commander stopped to talk to them.

Saluting, Jenkins eagerly asked, "What do you think, Commander? We're not going to be staying on Eden Prime long, are we? I'm looking forward to seeing some real action."

Chuckling, Dr. Chakwas said, "I sincerely hope your kidding, Corporal. Usually your 'real action' means me patching up your wounds in the Med-bay."

"Relax Corporal, don't get ahead of yourself," Commander Shepard said, agreeing with the doctor and trying not to squash the young marine's excitement. While being a marine required a clear mind in battle, that doesn't mean you couldn't take pride in it, and thats what Shepard saw the Corporal doing.

Lightly fidgeting, Jenkins said, "Yeah, your right, its just I've never been on a real mission like this before."

"Just treat this like every other mission, and you'll do fine," Shepard replied.

"Easy for you to say, you proved yourself on Akuze. Everyone knows what you can do."

Frowning, Shepard looked down a bit and said, "I try not to remember that too much."

Realizing what he said, Jenkins immediately tried to apologize, "I-I-I'm sorry, Commander, I-I didn't mean to-"

"Its alright, Jenkins, I've put it behind me," Shepard said honestly, giving a slight, reassuring smile.

"Oh, well, again, I didn't mean to offend you. I guess I really am just excited," and again, Jenkins was fidgeting.

"Your young corporal, and you got a long career ahead of you. Just be careful not to do something to screw that up," the Commander patted him on the shoulder in a friendly way as he said that. Jenkins looked at him in appreciation. "Yes sir, I'll be careful."

Dr. Chakwas then decided to ask, "Was there something you needed, Commander?"

"Actually, yes," Shepard nodded in her direction and then turned back to Jenkins, "You're from Eden Prime, aren't you, Jenkins? What can you tell me about it?"

"Well, it's a beautiful place, sir. Real peaceful. I don't know why we would choose it as our first mission. There's nothing out there, it's just a small farming colony."

"I see," Commander Shepard nodded, not really getting the answer he was hoping for. But figuring he had already waited too long, he bid both Dr. Chakwas and Corporal Jenkins good-bye and made his way to the communications room behind them.

He was surprised to see not Captain Anderson, but the turian Spectre known as Nihlus, looking at what seemed to be rather peaceful pictures of what Shepard could only guess was Eden Prime. Turning to see who had entered, Nihlus nodded to Commander Shepard and turned to face towards him.

"Ah, Commander Shepard. I'm glad you're here."

Keeping a clear face, Commander Shepard responded, "The Captain told me to meet him here."

"He's on his way, but I'm glad you got here first. It'll give us a moment to talk."

Nihlus turned and walked back over to the screen showing the pictures he was staring at.

"This world we are going to, Eden Prime. I hear its quite beautiful."

"I've never been there," Shepard answered, feeling as though Nihlus was expecting him to respond.

"But you've heard of it. It's become something of a symbol for your people. Proof that not only can humanity establish colonies across the galaxy, but also protect them." Nihlus was pacing a bit, every now and then looking at Shepard. "But how safe is it really?"

Sensing some kind of meaning behind those words, Commander Shepard raised an eyebrow and asked, "Do you know something?"

Nihlus made his way to stop in front of Commander Shepard. "Your people are still newcomers, Shepard. The galaxy is a dangerous place. Is humanity truly ready for this?"

Hearing the door open, they both turned to see a dark skinned man with slightly graying hair walk in. "I think its time we tell the Commander what's really going on."

Nihlus nodded and said to Shepard, "This mission is far more than a simple shakedown run."

Nodding to his Captain, Commander Shepard began, "I had a feeling there was something you weren't telling us."

"This comes straight from the top. Information strictly on a need to know basis. A research team on Eden Prime unearthed some kind of beacon during an excavation. It was Prothean," Captain Anderson finished.

A bit intrigued at hearing this, Commander Shepard said, "I thought the Protheans vanished fifty thousand years ago."

Nihlus responded saying, "Their legacy remains. The Mass Relays, the Citadel, all of our modern technology comes from their influence. The galaxy owes the Protheans a great debt."

"This is big Shepard," Anderson said, "The last time humanity made a discovery like this, it jumped our technology forward two hundred years. But Eden Prime doesn't have the facilities to handle something like this. We need to bring it back to the Citadel for proper study."

"Obviously, this goes beyond just human interests, Commander. This discovery could affect every species in Council space," Nihlus added. Something about the way he said that and what he had asked earlier made Shepard feel a bit uneasy. "Are you expecting trouble?"

"I'm always expecting trouble," the turian said.

"There's more, Shepard," Anderson continued, "Nihlus isn't just here for the beacon. He's also here to evaluate you."

_Evaluate me? For what?_ Commander Shepard wondered to himself. Instead he asked, "What's going on, Captain?"

"The Alliance has been pushing for this for a long time now. Humanity wants a larger say in shaping interstellar policy. The Spectres represent the power and authority of the Council. If they accept a human into their ranks, it will show just how far the Alliance has come," the Captain said.

"Not many could have survived what you went through on Akuze. You showed not only incredible skill, but also a remarkable will to live, a singularly useful talent. That's why I've put your name forward for the Spectres," Nihlus continued from where Captain Anderson left off.

Confused, Shepard couldn't help but ask, "Why would a turian want a human in the Spectres?" After all, from what Shepard had heard, most turians and humans didn't seem to get along too well. But Nihlus gave him a rather pleasant response with his answer.

"Not all aliens resent humanity. Some of us see the potential of your species. I don't care that your human, Shepard, only that you can get the job done."

Turning to Captain Anderson, Shepard asked him, "I assume this is good for the Alliance?"

"Earth needs this Shepard," the Captain said simply.

Nihlus continued, "I need to see your skills for myself. This will be the first of many missions together."

Thinking it all over for a bit, Commander Shepard couldn't help but feel both flattered and nervous. It would be an honor to be the first human Spectre, but was he, a colony kid and a massacre survivor, really the right choice for something like that? Mentally shaking his head of those thoughts, knowing that now probably wouldn't be the best time to question what was going on, Shepard decided to do the best he could with what he was given. "I'm ready when you are, Captain."

"Good. Now we will need to-"

_"Captain, we got a problem,"_ interrupted the normally sarcastic voice of Joker over the ships comm. system, only now obviously worried about something.

"What is it, Joker?"

_"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You had better see this."_

The screen Nihlus was looking at before now showed a video transmission that sounded very much like a battlefield and looked the part as well. A female marine in Phoenix armor ran towards the camera and forced it down to the ground, then turning back to fire at an unknown enemy. The camera turned this way and that until it focused on another soldier who began to give a sit-rep.

"We are under attack, they came out of no where and-" an explosion interrupted him as chaos continued to ensue. As the camera continued to turn around viewing the firefight, a noise began to be heard. The camera seemed to turn to find the noise, but moved so fast that it was hard to tell what was going on before suddenly there was nothing but static.

_"That's all there is, sir,"_ came Joker's voice again, _"Everything cuts out after that, no comm. traffic at all, nothing."_

Anderson, who had noticed something on the recording, ordered it rewound and held at one point. What they saw left them all temporary stunned.

It appeared to be some kind of vessel or ship, but one neither soldier in the room had seen before. It didn't help that the freeze-frame wasn't the best quality or angle to see it in. Anderson was the first to pull himself together. "Status Report!"

Joker responded quick and ready, _"Seventeen minutes out, Captain, no other ships in the area."_

"Take us in, Joker fast and quiet. This mission just got complicated."

"A small strike team should be able to move unnoticed, without drawing too much attention," Nihlus advised after thinking the situation over a bit.

"Grab you gear and meet us in the cargo hold," Anderson told Nihlus, and then turned to the Commander, "Tell Alenko and Jenkins to suit up, Commander. You're going in."

Shepard gave the freeze-frame one last look before going to do what he was told.

* * *

_Yeah, its true, 'halfbreed' has returned with a possible new story. I've been reading tons of other fanfictions on here over the years and I have only ever posted 3 actual fanfictions myself. I have tried to pick back up on some of them, as at least one was going to be multiple chapters, but right now I have to leave them all on hiatus._

_I decided to finally join the rest of the Mass Effect community here and write out my own characters journey through the game(s). I am not entirely sure how I will handle it though, seeing as how many options i have to work with. That being said, I plan to stick as close to how the game itself goes while sticking with what I chose to do in the game. There will be some changes here and there, but it will be subtle and will make this a more unique story to the main plot, but like I said, it will be a more subtle thing, but I think it will work. _

_I will take any and all comments here. Flames, Likes, Suggestions, whatever, I don't care what you say, I would just appreciate you saying it openly. _

_Well, i do hope you enjoy! Thanks ahead of time if you have already read this far!_

_-'halfbreed'_


	2. Chapter 2

_Okay, I had a realization about this while trying to get this chapter done. This beginning piece... well, its rather boring. Unfortunately, trying to stick with how things happen in the game is going to be boring in some parts, but I am hoping to fix that as things go on. I did add some subtle changes in this one, but it is nothing major. Also, I know how I will handle writing all these out. I wont reveal anything yet except this will more than likely be the longest version of the story, chapter wise. I will continue this with chapters until Commander Shepard leaves the Citadel as a Spectre. _

_And with that, do please enjoy and comment on anything. _

* * *

"_Engaging stealth systems_," Joker said over the ship-wide comms. Said ship was just flying over the usually quiet farming colony of Eden Prime, which was now entering its afternoon-evening hours. The colony now looked somewhat desolate, with obvious signs of gunfire and battle. While the colony was not completely destroyed or torn up, the signs of fighting was still there. Having noticed this himself, Joker informed his Captain. "_Someone's been doing some serious digging here, Captain_."

Down in Engineering and Storage, the lowest level of the SSV Normandy, five key figures were preparing for their current assignment. Nihlus, a Turian Spectre, was busy double checking all his weapons and shield readings off to the side while Commander Shepard, Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins stood together after going through routine checks on their own equipment. Captain Anderson walked up to the three and decided to start the mission briefing.

"Your teams the muscle in this operation, Commander. Go in heavy and head straight to the dig site."

From over his right shoulder, Shepard heard Alenko voice his own question, "What about survivors, Captain?"

"Helping survivors is a secondary objective, Lieutenant. The beacon is your top priority!"

By this point the main doors had opened and all present had to raise their voices to be heard over the roaring winds from outside the Normandy. "_Approaching drop point one_," Joker updated the ground team. Jenkins looked over to the Spectre readying his weapons for action. "Nihlus, you coming with us?"

Not even bothering to look at them, Nihlus answered, "I move faster on my own!" With that, Nihlus ran for the open doors and jumped out at his intended drop zone.

Bringing attention back to the briefing, Captain Anderson said, "Nihlus will scout on ahead. He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission. Otherwise I want radio silence."

"We've got his back, Captain," Commander Shepard said ready to go. Overhead, Joker said, "_Approaching drop point two_."

"The mission's yours now, Shepard," Anderson said. "Good luck!"

* * *

"Area secured, Commander," Alenko stated.

Looking over the ridge next to where they were dropped off, Shepard couldn't help but notice all the damage that was caused from whatever battle had occurred. Even though he didn't need a reminder of what his job was, he still felt a bit more motivated that he did before. Beginning their trek along a pathway leading towards the settlements and where the dig site would be, Shepard and both men in his current squad felt even more motivated at seeing a couple of what appeared to be vaporized bodies of the colonists. The three of them hoped not to find any other bodies like the ones they just saw.

Moving along the ridge around a rather rocky terrain, Shepard signaled for Jenkins to take point, while Alenko stayed next to Shepard, gun at the ready. As Jenkins began to move up, Shepard felt a foreboding feeling hit him, and it made him suddenly very wary. Looking up the path to rethink how to approach the dig site, he suddenly heard the whirring of small thrusters. At the top of the hill he saw three recon drones appear, looking in their direction. The colony itself had no drones of any kind that he knew of.

Before Shepard had a chance to warn him, they began firing on Jenkins. After one or two small blue flashes, indicating the initial shots hitting his shields, Jenkins gave out a low grunt as the rest hit him directly. He didn't get the chance to make any other sound before he hit the ground. Immediately, both Shepard and Alenko returned fire upon the drones with their assault rifles, having to take cover a few times to avoid the same fate as their team member.

When it was over, Alenko knelt down next to Jenkins, while Shepard made a quick search to be sure that no other drones were in the area. Shepard hoped that when he turned around that Jenkins might just be alive, albeit wounded. Unfortunately, when he did turn, he found the Lieutenant closing the poor Corporals eyes.

"Ripped right through his shields," Alenko said mournfully, standing up, "Never stood a chance."

Looking down at Jenkins body, Shepard, in the same mournful tones as Alenko, said, "He deserves a proper burial when the mission's finished. But right now I need you focused."

Alenko took one last look at Jenkins then nodded in understanding to Shepard. They both knew they still had a job to do, and Alenko was glad Shepard reminded him of that. Shepard, on the other hand, as they continued on towards the dig site through some woods at the top of the hill, hated himself for how he handled that just now. He knew there was no way he could have predicted those drones would show up, so there was no way he could have done anything else that would have left Jenkins alive. But the way he said what he did to Kaiden felt cold, like it wasn't the right thing to say. He couldn't do anything about it now, but it still bothered him. It didn't help that, despite knowing he couldn't have done anything else, he still lost a good man out there today.

Towards the end of the woods, both Alenko and Shepard noticed the same sound of small thrusters coming there way, as well as the sound of gunfire. Looking ahead they noticed a female marine in Phoenix armor, more than likely the same one Shepard had seen in the transmission back on the Normandy, running in their direction followed by two more recon drones. They saw her shields go down as the drones fired at her, causing her to trip. But in the same moment, she reached for her pistol and turned on the ground as she fell and shot down both drones with trained accuracy.

As they made their way out of the woods to rendezvous with the woman, all three marines noticed three figures off to the left. One was a human man, seemingly injured or stunned. The other two were dark figures with a light where the face should have been, and they appeared to be in some kind of full body armor. But one thing was for sure: they were not human. Both of them were holding down the man over some object. One of the two dark figures activated said object and suddenly a large spike rose up and impaled the man. Seeing this, the female marine made for cover to ready her assault rifle while Shepard and Alenko hurried their pace to aid her, with both of their assault rifles already out.

When both the figures where taken out, the female marine turned to both the men who had helped her and immediately saluted to them, introducing herself.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, of the 212, you the one in charge here, sir?" she said, referring to the Commander.

Nodding to her, he replied, "Commander Shepard and Lieutenant Alenko, of the Normandy. Are you wounded, Williams?"

She shrugged, "Just a few scrapes and bruises sir, nothing serious. The others… they weren't so lucky," taking a breath, Chief Williams went on explaining what had happened. "Oh man… we were just patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress signal but they jammed our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."

"What happened to the rest of your squad?" Shepard asked. He could tell immediately that she didn't have good news.

"We tried to double back to the dig site, that's where the beacon was being kept at. But we ran into an ambush. I don't think any of the others… I think I'm the only one left."

"This isn't your fault, Williams. You couldn't have done anything to save them," Shepard said, hoping to keep her out of her feeling of guilt and loss. He knew first hand out bad those feelings could get and how they could affect you.

"Yes, sir," she replied, pulled herself together and then continued, "We held out position for as long as we could, until the Geth overwhelmed us."

Alenko, shocked at hearing what these things were, voiced his thoughts. "The Geth haven't been seen outside the Veil for over two hundred years. Why are they here now?"

"They must be here for the beacon," Williams offered. "The dig site is close, just around the corner."

Thinking that Nihlus might have passed through the area before they did, Shepard asked, "Have you seen a turian Spectre pass through here?"

Giving a bit of a confused look, Chief Williams replied, "There aren't any turians on Eden Prime, none that I've ever met, at least. Not sure I'd be able to tell if one was a Spectre or not."

"If you saw this guy, you'd know," Alenko added, "He carries enough firepower to take out a platoon. Luckily, he's on our side."

Shrugging, Wiliams replied, "Sorry. Like I said, no turians."

Turning back to Chief Williams, Shepard said, "We could use your help, Williams."

She nodded, saying, "Aye Aye, sir. Its time for payback."

As they moved out towards the dig site, Shepard took a moment to look at the spike that they saw impale the man from before. It a dark purple color with some light blue outlined areas. If it had any other function other than taking organics and letting them hang high for all to see, then he couldn't tell. He also couldn't help but notice a couple others along the path they were walking along. They had bodies impaled on them as well.

Coming towards the bottom of the ravine they were in, they noticed a circular stage of some kind. Before he could get a better look at it and its surroundings, Shepard noticed movement around the stage. He also noticed that, at least one of them had a glowing face.

Quietly, Commander Shepard signaled for his team to get down into cover. Checking his helmets radar, he confirmed at least three Geth standing in the dig site. Looking to each of his squad, he signaled them the number of targets, and they confirmed. Williams readied her assault rifle while both Alenko and Shepard took out their pistols. Shepard leaned out of cover, took aim at the first Geth he saw and fired, first hitting its torso, then with rapid procession, hit it with every shot until it feel to the ground. The other Geth quickly either flanked around their fallen comrade to see the threat or moved to cover. Alenko used his biotics to push the one Geth out of its cover and began to fire at it while Williams took care of the third.

With the Geth taken care of, the trio walked onto the stage like area. "This is the dig site," Williams informed. Once they were sure the area was clear, she noticed something was missing. "The beacon was right here, it must have been moved," she said indicating towards the center of the site.

"By who, our side or the Geth?" Alenko questioned.

"Hard to say," Williams said, understandably, given their current situation. "Maybe we'll know more if we check the research camp."

Looking around, Shepard asked hopefully, "You think anyone got out of here alive?"

Also in a somewhat hopeful tone, Williams said, "If we're lucky, maybe hiding up in the camp. Its just on top of this ridge, up the ramps."

Moving along the ramps Williams suggested, Shepard wondered where their Spectre ally was and if he was nearby. As if on cue, he heard his comm. come to life. "Change of plans Shepard," came Nihlus' voice, "There's small spaceport up ahead. I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there."

"Copy that, Nihlus," Shepard replied, "Watch yourself out there, something other than Geth attacking doesn't feel right about this."

"I know what you mean. We'll rendezvous at the spaceport," and then the comm. went dead.

"That your Spectre friend you were asking me about?" Williams queried.

"Yeah, that's him," Kaiden confirmed.

When they reached the top of the ridge, Kaiden observed the area with a good tactical eye. "Good place for an ambush, keep you guard up." Shepard had thought the same thing as he looked around, but there was something else he noticed. There were more of those purple spikes here, and they too had bodies on them. These bodies, however, looked different somehow. From what he could tell from a distance, they appeared more mummified than a fresh body would appear to be. They actually reminded him of the bodies they had found when they first landed with Jenkins.

Before he had any time to think further, all three of them noticed one of the spikes receding back into the base of the device. When the spike left the body it was impaling, the body seemed to spark, and then it twitched and made to unsteadily stand up.

"Oh God," Kaiden said, "They're still alive!"

Ashley voiced her thoughts as well, obviously disturbed with what she was seeing. "What did the Geth do to them?"

The body that came down was now facing them, moving like anyone would expect some kind of zombie would. It seemed unsteady on its feet and didn't seem to be able to talk, but more grunt or screech. While appearing mummified, parts of the body was also glowing, including its eyes, it almost seemed like the body now had cybernetic implants in it. Whatever this body was now, it was not human, and unlike what Kaiden had said, they were nothing close to being alive.

The other spikes began to recede as well, and the bodies on them, appearing very much the same as the first one, began to get up and follow the first in charging the trio. By the time the first thing, the first husk, had reached them, Kaiden had his pistol out and Williams had her assault rifle, but both were rather unsure about using them at first. Shepard, on the other hand, had reached for his shotgun and did not hesitate as the first husk got close, blowing the husk back onto its back.

When their Commander shot, both Alenko and Williams shook themselves out of their mental shock and fired on the others approaching them. One of the husks managed only one attack from a bit of a distance, though it was a failed attack, neither of the marines missed it. The husk began to glow brighter and had sparks start to fly off of it. With a stretching like motion and a screech, it let out some kind of electric pulse that, from the distance that was in-between it and the marines, lightly affected their shields. Had they have been closer, it would have probably taken out their shields altogether and even shocked themselves as well.

With the area clear, they took a moment to search the research camp to the right of where the husks and spikes were. There had been some serious fighting going on here. Bodies of both colonists and marines could be seen here or there. They searched through a few of the buildings to check for survivors, but found none. That was, until they reached the last building.

"This door has been secured from the inside, Commander. Someone might be in there." Alenko activated his omni-tool and began to hack at the lock. After a few moments, the indicator light turned from red and green and the door came open. Shepard, with his pistol out, was the first one in with Ashley and her assault rifle behind him. Kaiden came in last, as he had to get back out his own assault rifle. As soon as they were inside they heard a female voice call out in relief, "Humans! Thank the maker!"

Inside the building were two people, both seeming worn down from their recent experiences. The woman appeared more worried and tired, but her companion, a man, was staggering a bit and seemed to be a bit disoriented. Said man whispered urgently, "Hurry, close the door, before they come back!"

"Don't worry," Shepard said, hoping to ease their thoughts further, "We'll protect you."

The woman smiled slightly, "Thank you, but I think we'll be okay now. It looks like everyone's gone."

Chief Williams recognized the woman. "You're Doctor Warren, the one in charge of the excavation. Do you know what happened to the beacon?"

"It was moved to the spaceport this morning," Dr. Warren informed them. This eased Shepard's mind a bit thinking about how Nihlus said he was heading to the spaceport earlier. That meant the beacon would be in his protection until they arrived to offer support until pick up.

Dr. Warren explained their situation after telling them about the beacon, "Dr. Manuel and I stayed behind to help pack up the camp. When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide." She paused, grief washing over her face for a moment. "They gave their lives to save us."

Dr. Manuel suddenly interrupted, "No one is saved. The age of humanity is ended. Soon, only ruin will remain."

Thinking that it was just stress or lack of sleep that caused Dr. Manuel to say that, Shepard asked Dr. Warren about the attack and the beacon. "What else can you tell me about the attack?"

She shook her head, "It all happened so fast, one minute we were gathering our equipment, the next we were hiding in this shed while Geth swarmed over the camp."

"Agents of the destroyers, bringers of darkness, heralds of our destruction," Dr. Manuel chanted. Shepard was beginning to worry about his sanity, and he could tell that his two teammates, and also Dr. Warren, were thinking the same thing. Dr. Warren decided to continue on.

"We could hear the fighting outside. Gunfire, screams, I thought it would never end. Then everything went quiet. We just sat here, too afraid to move. Until you came along, that is."

"What can you tell me about the beacon?"

"Its some type of data module from a galaxy-wide communications network, remarkably well preserved. It could be the greatest scientific discovery of our lifetime!" she said with some excitement obvious in her tone, despite the recent days events. "Miraculous new technologies, groundbreaking medical advances, who knows what secrets are locked inside?"

In opposite tones of what his colleague used, Dr Manuel voiced his apparent opinion, "We have unearthed the heart of evil. We have awakened the beast, unleashed the darkness."

Finally having enough, Dr. Warren attempted to calm down her peer. "Dr. Manuel please, this isn't the time."

Looking from Dr. Manuel to Dr. Warren, Shepard asked, "What's wrong with your assistant?"

Bashfully, Dr. Warren replied, "Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he has always been a bit… unstable. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin."

Unable to help but agree with the metaphor, Shepard decided to ask one more question before continuing to the beacon. "Before I go, did you notice a turian in the area?"

Dr. Manuel was the first to respond though, and he was rather eager about it too. "I saw him! The prophet, the leader. He was here, before the attack!"

"That's impossible!" exclaimed Kaiden, "Nihlus was with us on the Normandy before the attack. He couldn't have been here."

"I'm sorry," Dr. Warren said, "Like I said, Dr. Manuel is still a bit unstable. I gave him an extra does of his meds after the attack. No, we haven't seen your turian. We've been hiding in here since the attack began."

Despite seeming a bit gone, Dr. Manuel still heard his colleague's choice of words about him. "Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left."

Feeling as though he had gotten all he needed to know, and wanting to get to Nihlus before any more Geth decided to show themselves, Shepard told Williams to lead them to the spaceport while the two doctors stayed in the shed until a recovery team arrived. As they left, they could hear Dr. Manuel saying something about the 'darkness of eternity falling', or something like it, and Dr. Warren urging him to lie down and rest.

Chief Ashley Williams lead them through a path up behind the shed they were just in. about halfway through the path, Shepard heard the rather loud and distinct sound of a gunshot echo through the area. They kept moving, the other two only just showing they had heard it themselves. But something about it bothered Shepard. He couldn't quite figure out why, but there was just this nagging feeling in the back of his head that wouldn't let go. But those thoughts were quickly replaced by wonder and a tad bit of fear at what he saw once they reached the end of the path and could see the tram station that lead to the spaceport at the bottom of a long hill.

Kaiden was the first to voice his immediate thoughts. "What is that? Off in the distance?"

Towards where he could only guess was the spaceport was the thing that Shepard saw back on the Normandy when watching the attempted distress call. It was obviously huge, even from this particular distance, a dreadnought of a ship. It was a dark color, probably an extremely dark purple. It had this… aura about it, for lack of better term. At times the aura seemed to be visible through seemingly random flashes of red lighting around it. As it started to lift off the ground at a speed that would have been difficult for most if not all other ships Shepard knew of, he noticed what appeared to be tentacle like arms on the bottom of the ship. This thing was built like some kind of crustacean. As it lifted, Shepard and his team heard a sound that they now registered as the sound of the spiked things receding. They looked down to the hill and noticed three Geth, one that seemed to have more armor than the other two, and a number of husks getting to their unsteady feet.

Moving quick, Shepard ordered Alenko and Williams into cover behind some rocks at the top of the hill they were on. As they moved into position, the Geth at the tram station began to fire on them while the husks made their way towards their location. Williams began spraying bullets from her assault rifle at the oncoming husks while Alenko charged up a biotic warp and set it off on a husk that caused it to topple over and knock down some of the other husks near it. The two seemed to work together very nicely, quickly reading off of each other's movements and actions, Shepard noticed.

While the two of them focusing on the husks, Shepard decided to take out the Geth on the tram platform. With his pistol out, Shepard took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a brief second. When he reopened them, he pulled the trigger on the Geth with the heavier armor, hitting it almost every shot. As it began to limp from the hits it took, Shepard moved to the other two next to it. Hitting the first in the head twice and three times in the torso and the second on the shoulder and its head three times, they both feel to the ground. Letting his gun cool down before shooting again, the last Geth, the one with the heaviest armor of the three, began to fire back. But now it was sloppy from the damage it had taken from the marksman like shooting from Shepard.

Before he could begin to fire at the Geth again, he noticed movement to his left and turned to look. Alenko had backed up, letting his own pistol cool down, and Williams had been in cover trying to catch her own breath. Unfortunately, that left enough of an opened for 3 husks, one of which appeared to support several injuries from the firefight, to get through and flank the Gunnery Chief. Right as she noticed the husks at her side, Shepard focused his own biotic abilities and Threw the husk in front, thus pushing the other two as well, as far back as he could. Alenko then began firing on the knocked over husks until his weapon overheated again, only this time, none of the husks stood back up. All three of them took a moment to catch their breaths and check their guns after that.

"You alright, Williams?" Shepard asked.

"Yes, sir. Uh… sorry about that, Commander, I guess… I don't know… Either way, it won't happen again, sir," she said, finally pulling herself together.

"Calm down, Williams. Things got kind of heated with those husks and you were right there at it. Just making sure you're still holding up. You too, Alenko. I need you guys on your game for this," Shepard said, now addressing both his team members.

"We're good, Commander, or at least I am," Alenko started, look towards Williams. She nodded to the both of them with a small smile. "I'll be alright, sir. And… I appreciate it, Commander, LT." Alenko smiled and continued, "Don't worry about us, sir, we're not turning back now." With a smile and a nod, Shepard turned and began his way down the hill, with Alenko and Williams behind him.

They found another locked building on their way down and decided to check and see if there were more survivors inside of it like the last one. In only a minute, Alenko had the door opening and right away three people came out.

"Everybody stay calm out there! We're coming out, we're not armed!"

The only woman said, "Is it safe? Are they gone?"

Once again, Shepard made to calm their fears a bit, "You're safe now. Nobody's going to hurt you."

The first guy spoke again, "Those things were crawling all around the shed. They would have found us for sure. We owe you our lives."

The woman spoke up again, "I-I still can't believe it. When we saw that ship, I thought it was all over."

Again the first man started talking, "It showed up right before the attack. Knew it was trouble the second I saw it. So we made a break for the shed."

"Well, your safe now, but we have to go. Stay here until a recovery team arrives," Shepard said, making his way to leave. Then he noticed it. The guy in the backs hesitation. Finally he spoke up, "Hey, Cole, we're just a bunch of farmers. These guys are soldiers. Maybe we should give them the stuff."

The first guy, Cole, shot at him, "Geez, Blake, you gotta learn when to shut up!"

Giving him a stare only a marine could, Shepard said, "Something you want to tell me, Cole?"

Scratching his head, Cole said, "Some of the guys were running a small smuggling ring, nothing major. In exchange for a cut of the profits, we let them store packages in our sheds."

"What kind of packages?"

"I found a pistol," Cole replied, not holding anything back. "Figured it might come in handy if those things come back. But you'll probably get more use out of it than we will."

Taking the pistol, Shepard decided to try and get what he could out of this small criminal ring. "We are risking our lives to save this colony. You sure there's nothing else here that could help us out?"

"Yeah," Cole said, reluctantly, "there's one more thing. I was gonna sell it after this was over, but you probably deserve this more than I do." He handed over an equipment mod, a rather decent one at that.

"Who's your contact at the spaceport, Cole? What's his name?" Williams inquired.

"He's not a bad guy, I don't want to get him in trouble. Besides, I'm not a snitch."

That last phrase started to get to Shepard. It bothered him that people still cared about things like 'snitching' on another person when something like this is happening around them. But Shepard kept his cool and talked it out.

"He might have something to do with this whole attack, Cole. We need his name. It's important."

Cole broke with that, "Yeah, okay, your right. His name's Powell. Works the docks at the spaceport. If he's still alive."

Nodding in thanks, Shepard again told them to stay in the shed until someone else arrived and left for the tram platform. When they got there, the noticed a body laying down next to some crates. Kaiden was the first to recognize it. "Commander… it's Nihlus."

He was right, it was Nihlus. This wasn't good, and Shepard knew it. A Spectre, killed in action. Now he knew something about this whole thing wasn't right. But before he could think on that further, they heard movement behind some crates. All three marines held up their guns and pointed in that direction, but it was nothing but a shaken dockworker.

"Wait! Don't shoot, I'm one of you, I'm human!"

"Sneaking around like that almost got you killed," Shepard warned, but put away his gun along with his teammates.

"I'm sorry, I was just hiding from those things," he started, then motioned towards Nihlus' body, "I saw what happened to that turian. The other one killed him."

"The other one? Another turian?" Shepard asked. This was the second time someone mentioned another turian, and he doubted an insane scientist and a shaken worker would work together to spread lies about something like another turian instead of Nihlus on a human colony.

"Yeah, the other one got here first. He was waiting for something when your friend showed up. He… he called him Saren. I… I think they new each other. Then your friend seemed to relax. He let his guard down. Then Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back. I'm just lucky he didn't see me behind the crates."

Shepard thought about that last comment. Why didn't anyone find Powell when he went behind the crates for cover? "How come you're the only one who survived? Why didn't anyone else try to hid behind the crates?"

Looking nervous, he fidgeted a bit when he answered. "They never had a chance. I… I was already behind the crates when the attack started."

"Wait a minute," Alenko started, voicing all our thoughts, "You were hiding behind the crates before the attack?"

He slumped a bit when he explained, "Sometimes I need a nap to get through my shift. I sneak off behind the crates to grab 40 winks where the supervisor can't find me."

"You survived because you lazy?" Williams said, sounding pretty pissed.

Shepard didn't know what do say to that, so he decided to move onto something else. The reason they were there: the beacon.

"We were told a Prothean beacon was brought to the spaceport. What happened to it?"

"It's over on the other platform. Probably where that guy Saren was headed. He hopped the cargo tram right after he killed your friend," he paused, thinking about something. "I knew that beacon was trouble, everything's gone to hell since it showed up… and then the attack…"

"Then we need to go to the other platform. But before we go," Shepard turned back to the worker, whom he now guessed was Powell, "You're Cole's contact here on the docks, for the smuggling ring, right, Powell?"

Trying to deny it, he started saying, "What? No, I mean…" he finally gave up, "what does it matter now? So I'm a smuggler, who cares? My supervisors dead, the whole crew's dead… it doesn't matter now, does it?"

Gesturing around them, Shepard said, "Anything hidden nearby that we can use against the Geth?"

"A shipment of grenades came through last week. Nobody notices if a few small pieces go missing from the military orders." While he got them out, Williams voiced her thoughts again, and she was definitely mad now.

"You greedy son of a bitch! We're out here trying to protect your ass and all you can think about is how you can rip us off?"

"I never thought you'd actually need those grenades," Powell defended, "I mean, who'd want to attack Eden Prime? We're just a bunch of farmers. How was I supposed to know?"

Trying to ease the tension that was obviously building, the Commander said, "Forget about him, he's not worth it."

Williams almost seemed willing say something else, but remembered she was talking to a superior officer. Sighing, she turned back to Powell, "You're lucky the Commander's here. Hand over those grenades."

Feeling a bit of déjà vu, Shepard asked Powell, in the same tone he talked to Cole with earlier, "A lot of marines died here today. Those grenades could have come in handy. If I were your, I'd think of some way to make it up to them."

Shepard felt a little bad about laying on so much guilt, but then he remembered that this was a smuggling ring that included deadly weaponry. There was no telling where these weapons would have ended up at.

Powell seemed to really consider Shepard's words for a bit, and then he reached down and handed over something else. "There's something else I was saving. Could be worth a fortune. Experimental technology, top of the line. Take it. I don't need it. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Really, I'm sorry. I… I need to get out of here, I need to get away from this place…" and with that, Powell left.

Adding the mod that Powell just handed him to his grenade container on the side of his armor, Shepard turned to his team. "We need to get to that beacon."

Alenko nodded and looked to the left. "Looks like there's still another cargo tram we can use to get there."

Making their way to the tram, they encountered more Geth. By now, though, the three of them had adapted to the fact that Geth were attacking, and for the most part they were ready to face them. Once they cleared the tram, Shepard started the tram and they made their way to the spaceport.

* * *

When they got there, Alenko's omni-tool began to chime something. As he looked at it, Shepard looked behind him and noticed a device just off the tram. Alenko looked at it as well after consulting his omi-tool and shouting something right as Shepard realized what the device was.

"Demolition charges! The Geth must have planted them!"

"There's going to be more than just this one. Alenko, get started on disabling them! Williams, you stay right behind him and cover him. I'll scout ahead and see if I can find any others and make sure the Geth aren't guarding them."

As soon as Shepard worked his way up a ramp to the main level of the platform, the Geth showed up and began firing at him. Williams fired at them as a distraction from her angle, but none of her shots seemed to be able to hit the Geth. Shepard took cover behind some plated railing and used the trick he had used before. He took a quick breath, briefly closed his eyes and then came back up and fired on the Geth. Just about each and every shot he made connected with a Geth. He quickly took out three Geth and damaged two others before having to take cover again for his shields to recharge and his gun to cool down.

"Commander, this one's disabled. Making our way to the others," Alenko called out. Thinking quickly, Shepard came up with a new plan of action. "Alenko, I can see one other charge opposite my position. the immediate area should be clear for you to get here. You and Williams make your way there, I'm going to try and flank the Geth from this side. Watch your back!"

"Yes, sir!"

Shepard stayed in his position until they crossed over the platform to provide cover, then made his way down his side of the platform. When he made it to the end, he looked around the corner and found 3 more Geth and another that had more armor than the rest. Assessing the situation, he pulled out his shotgun and grabbed a grenade. In quick succession, he threw the grenade between the group and waited for it to blow. As soon as it did, Shepard jumped out and aimed his shotgun at the first Geth he saw that could still move. As he finished with the group he had seen, he looked to the left, to where Alenko and Williams would come from and saw a red light aimed right at him. It was the light from a sniper. Before he had the chance to move to cover, the red light went out at the sound of a bang and the sounds of an assault rifle. He saw Williams come up when she was done shooting the geth she had hit with the end of her gun and Alenko right behind her.

"According to my omni-tool, there's still one more we need to find Commander," Alenko said, looking around.

"Its over here," Shepard said, having seen it when he took out the main group of Geth. When the last charge was disabled, they moved to the next platform. Fortunately, the platform seemed clear of hostiles. But what they did find, was an object with a green light shooting out the top of it. Williams told them that this was the Prothean beacon.

Activating his radio, Shepard called the Normandy for pickup. Meanwhile, Alenko and Williams checked out the beacon. When Shepard was done with his radio, Alenko turned to him for an update. But before Shepard could respond, he noticed some kind of flash behind Alenko and he saw Williams double over and leaning towards the beacon. Reacting out of instinct, Shepard hurried to her and grabbed her waist and tossed her back to Alenko. But immediately he realized that may not have been the best idea. Now he felt himself being pulled towards the beacon, uncontrollably.

He heard voices at one point behind him, but he couldn't make them out. All he could think about was voices or something inside his head. Before he knew it, it was directly in front of the beacon, and then he was suddenly lifted off the ground. Shepard could feel and see images being implanted into his mind. Flashes of oranges and red and black, screaming and a feeling of foreboding, it all ran rampant in his mind. Then as quick as it began, Shepard felt himself blown back like from an explosion and he was knocked unconscious, going in and out of dreams of the images he had been forced with.

* * *

_Well, what do you think? Seriously, I could really use the feedback. I know it isnt much yet, but knowing someone out there is reading it and helping me find and correct mistakes would be a big help. I hope to have more up soon. _

_Until next time, everyone be safe out there!_

_-'halfbreed'_


	3. Chapter 3

_Well, heres chapter 3. I was actually hoping to get farther than I did in this chapter, but you do with what you got. I feel like this chapter has a bit more customization, a bit more uniqueness added. Now, I'm sure that some of you are rather bored reading over this part, and I am sorry for that. Unfortunately, I dont see much of how to change this beginning section. I am going to have to follow through with the 'cannon' for now, but it will be well worth it, I think. _

_Now, I know a couple people at least are reading this, but I could use some comments and reviews here. I'll seriously take anything here: flames, advice, notes, kudos, etc. _

_Anyway, here it is. I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

The first thing Commander Shepard was aware of was a throbbing in his head. The second thing he was aware of was that he was not in his armor and that he wasn't outside on some spaceport ramp. Vaguely, Shepard thought he heard a voice outside his current peripheral awareness. Knowing he would have to get up eventually, he fought the unconsciousness he could feel around him and made to get up. It was then he began to recognize the voice that was speaking.

"Doctor, Doctor Chakwas! I think he's waking up!"

Straining to open his eyes, Shepard noted that he was in the med-bay of the Normandy. Making his way to sit over the side of the bed he was on, he noticed Dr. Chakwas walking around to stand in front of him.

"You had us worried there, Shepard," she began, "How are you feeling?"

"Minor throbbing," he lied, feeling like someone had tricked him into going out and getting drunk and now he was suffering a hangover from it, "Nothing serious. How long was I out?"

Chakwas didn't even have to look at a clock, "About fifteen hours. Something happened down there with the beacon, I think…"

"It's my fault," said the familiar voice he had heard before, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. "I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way."

"You had no way to know what would happen, Chief," Shepard said. In all seriousness, no one could have known that just approaching something would cause it to react in the way that the beacon did. The Chief seemed to ease up a bit when Shepard said that, obviously worried about someone thinking otherwise.

"Actually," Chakwas continued, "we don't even know if that's what set it off. Unfortunately, we'll never get the chance to find out."

Before Shepard could ask what she meant, Williams explained it for him.

"The beacon exploded, a system overload, maybe. The blast knocked you out cold. The Lieutenant and I carried you back to the ship."

So it was an actual explosion he felt, Shepard thought, remembering the feeling of being knocked back as he blacked out. "Thanks for that, Chief, I appreciate it," he then turned to Dr. Chakwas, "So what's the damage, Doc?"

"Physically, you're fine. But I detected some unusual brain activity, abnormal beta waves. I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, signs typically associated with intense dreaming," she finished, obviously in thought as to what those dreams might have been. By this point, Shepard had made his way to stand up, feeling a bit better than he did and was now leaning against the bed he had been laying on. He thought of the dreams he had while he was out and couldn't help but worry that they weren't dreams…

"I saw… I don't know what I saw," Shepard started, trying to piece together his thoughts, "Death, destruction… nothings really clear." It didn't help him that his head still felt like a morning hangover, a feeling he had always done his best to avoid experiencing. Dr. Chakwas seemed to think on what he said before responding.

"Hmm… I'd better add this to my report, it may-" she was cut off by the med-bay doors opening and someone else coming in. "Oh, Captain Anderson."

The captain came in and asked, "How's our XO holding up, doctor?"

"All the readings look normal, I'd say the Commander's going to be fine," she said.

Nodding to her, Anderson said, "Glad to hear it," then turning to Shepard, he said, "Shepard, I need to speak with you. In private," he said the last part to the doctor and Gunnery Chief.

The Chief saluted saying she would be in the mess hall and left with Doctor Chakwas. When the doors shut Anderson turned back to the Commander. "Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard, Commander. You sure you're ok?"

Shepard didn't want to lie to the Captain. He had too much respect for the man, and to be honest, he could use to let a little something off his chest. "I don't like soldiers dying under my command."

The Captain nodded in understanding. He knew about Shepard's past, about Akuze. It was understandable that Shepard wouldn't like knowing someone he knew for any period of time died like that. No man would. But he also knew that Shepard didn't need to fall in the trap of self-doubt and second-guessing himself.

"Jenkins wasn't your fault. You did a good job down there, Shepard."

Instead of arguing or continuing with the subject, Shepard decided to avoid the topic. "Chief Williams isn't part of the Normandy crew."

"I figured we could use a soldier like her," Anderson began, "She's been reassigned to the Normandy."

Shepard couldn't help but agree with that. From what he could tell back on Eden Prime, she was good at what she was trained for, and could adapt very well when the situation calls for it. "She's a good soldier. She'll make a great addition to the crew."

The captain nodded, "Lieutenant Alenko agrees with you. That's why I added her to our crew."

Feeling his headache residing, Shepard pulled himself together and stood up straight. "You said you needed to see me in private, Captain?"

"Yes," he said, sighing, "I won't lie to you, Shepard. Things look bad. Nihlus is dead, the beacon is destroyed and the Geth are invading. The Council's going to want answers."

"We didn't do anything wrong, Captain," Shepard said, thinking nothing of saying 'we' and not 'I', even though Anderson noticed it. "Hopefully the Council can see that."

Anderson said confidently, "I'll stand behind you and your report, Shepard. You're a damn hero in my books. But that's not why I'm here. It's Saren, that other turian. Saren's a Spectre, one of the best. A living legend."

Shepard knew from the moment Anderson said Spetre that this was not going to end well on any front. Especially if he was as good as Anderson said, meaning that he would already have the backing of the Citadel Council. Great… just great, Shepard thought.

Anderson continued, "But if he's working with the Geth, it means he's gone rogue. A rogue Spetre's trouble. Saren's dangerous, and he hates humans."

"Why?"

"He thinks we're growing too fast, taking over the glaxay. A lot of aliens think that way. Most of them don't do anything about it. But Saren has allied himself with the Geth. I don't how, I don't know why, I only know it had something to do with that beacon," he paused and stopped the pacing that he had began during his explanation and turned to Shepard, "You were there just before the beacon self-destructed. Did you see anything? Any clue that might tell us what Saren was after?"

Leaning back against the wall, Shepard thought about all he had seen, hoping to piece it together better now that his headache was almost gone, also hoping to explain it better than he had earlier with the women that was in there. "Just before I lost consciousness I had some kind of vision."

Not taking anything for granted, Anderson asked, "A vision? A vision of what?"

Taking a deep breath, Shepard said, "I saw synthetics… geth maybe. Slaughtering people. Butchering them."

Thinking on what he said, Anderson finally said, "We need to report this to the Council."

Amused by that thought, Shepard said, "What are we going to tell them? I had a bad dream?"

Chuckling a bit himself at Shepard's choice of words, Anderson turned serious again, "We don't know what information was stored in that beacon. Lost Prothean technology? Blueprints for some ancient weapon of mass destruction? Whatever it was, Saren took it," he started pacing now, "But I know Saren. I know his reputation, his politics. He believes humans are a blight upon the galaxy. This attack was an act of war. He has the secrets from the beacon, he has an army of geth at his command and he won't stop until he's whipped humanity off the face of the galaxy."

If this really was the kind of enemy they now faced, then the Commander knew that, "I'll find someway to take him down."

Shaking his head, Anderson then said, "Its not that easy. He's a Spectre. He can go anywhere and do almost anything. That's why we need the Council on our side."

Thinking about what the Captain said, Shepard realized what he was getting at. "We prove Saren's gone rogue and the Council will revoke his Spectre status."

Right now that was the best plan of action they had. "I'll contact the Ambassador and see if he can get us an audience with the Council. He'll want to see us as soon as we reach the Citadel. We should be getting close now," he turned to the Commander once more before leaving, "As soon as you feel able, head up to the bridge and tell Joker to bring us into dock."

When he was sure he could walk straight, Shepard made his way out of the med-bay, assuring Dr. Chakwas that he would be all right. He passed by Chief Williams on his was to the stairs that lead to the upper deck of the Normandy and had a small chat with her, reassuring her that she would do fine aboard the Normandy. Once he was on the CIC of the Normandy, he passed Navigator Pressly, who expressed his thankfulness to Shepard being alright, saying it was hard enough losing Jenkins on the crew, as he made his way to Joker at the helm.

"Good timing, Commander," Joker said as he walked up, "I was just about to bring us into the Citadel. Get to see taxpayer dollar at work."

Letting Joker continue his work, the Commander just stood there, deciding to watch the docking of the Normandy onto the Citadel. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to find both Alenko and Williams walking towards the helm, lightly chatting with each other.

"Commander, thought we'd come up and watch the docking procedure," Alenko greeted.

Shepard nodded to them both and turned back to look out the windows with Williams coming up next to him while Alenko made his way to the monitoring seat next to Joker. Flying through the Serpent Nebula, the Citadel came into view, its size and appearance with a star shining bright behind it causing Williams to gasp lightly and Shepard to look on in a bit of awe himself. Flying towards the giant space station, they noticed a large dreadnought of a ship with the four-pointed shape of a star seemingly patrolling the area around the Citadel. Williams seemed to be particularly excited about seeing all of this, and Shepard had to admit, he was rather awe-inspired as well by all this.

"Look at the size of that ship!" Williams exclaimed.

"The Ascension," Alenko explained, "Flagship of the Citadel fleet."

"Well, size isn't everything," Joker said.

In a teasing tone, Williams said, "Why so touchy, Joker?"

Defensively, Joker said, "I'm just saying, you need firepower too."

Looking back out at the Ascension, Williams said with as much excitement as before, "Look at that thing! Its main gun could rip through the barriers of any ship in the Alliance fleet!"

"Good thing its on our side, then," Alenko said off handedly.

Joker then took that time to activate the comm. and contact the Citadel. "Citadel Control, this is SSV Normandy, requesting permission to land."

"Standby for clearance, Normandy," came a male voice from the traffic control tower of the Citadel. After a few moments of the Normandy drifting towards the central ring of the Citadel, passing by the 5 populated arms, the same voice came back over the comm. saying, "Clearance granted, Normandy. You may begin your approach. Transferring you to an Alliance operator."

"Roger that, Citadel Control. Normandy out."

* * *

The Presidium was quite a site to see. The artificial skies seemed very real and gave the place a nice cozy afternoon feel to it, with just the right temperature to go with it. There were water reserves with water shooting up like with a fountain design. All in all, it was rather peaceful. On the outside at least, for the public. Inside of the embassies, however, was a different story, especially inside of the human embassy.

"This is an outrage!" came the loud voice of the Citadel's human ambassador, Donnel Udina, "The Council would step in if the Geth attacked a Turian colony!"

The ambassador was conversing with the three orange-toned holographic images of the Citadel Council: an asari, a turian and a salarian. Obviously, the conversation wasn't going well, seeing as neither party seemed too particularly happy.

The salarian spoke up next, "Turians don't found colonies on the borders of the Terminus Systems, Ambassador."

"Humanity was well aware of the risks when you went into the Traverse," the asari said in a kind sounding voice, sounding like she was trying to calm the arguing.

If that was her intent, it didn't work. "What about Saren? You can't just ignore a rogue Spectre! I demand action!"

"You don't get to make demands of the Council, Ambassador," the turian said sharply.

"Citadel Security is investigating your charges against Saren," the asari said in a more firm tone than before, "We will discuss the C-Sec findings at the hearing, not before." With the conversation apparently over, the holograms faded away. Ambassador Udina then turned towards the four other people in his office: Captain Anderson, Commander Shepard, Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams.

"Captain Anderson," the Ambassador greeted curtly, "I see you brought half your crew with you."

"Just the ground team from Eden Prime, in case you had any questions," Anderson answered, seemingly ignoring how the Ambassador had spoken to him.

"I have the mission reports," the Ambassador said dismissively, "I assume they're accurate?"

"They are," Anderson answered, then gestured to the hologram projectors behind Udina, "Sounds like you convinced the Council to give us an audience."

"They were not happy about it," Udina responded, obviously still a bit irritated, "Saren's their top agent. They didn't like him being accused of treason."

"If he's gone rogue, then they have to do something about it. As I recall, Spectre's only report to the Council, which means they are the ones responsible for Saren's actions," Shepard said, standing there in his armor minus his helmet, Alenko and Williams behind him also without their helmets. He was a bit irritated at how Udina seemed not to care as much about Saren being a traitor as he did with the Council not listening to him. He could only hope that the Council put real effort into investigating Saren.

"Settle down, Commander," the ambassador said, picking up on Shepard's irritation, "You've already done more than enough to jeopardize your candidacy for the Spectres. The mission on Eden Prime was a chance to prove you could get the job done. Instead, Nihlus ended up dead and the beacon was destroyed."

"That's Saren's fault, not his," Anderson stepped in.

"Then we'd better hope the C-Sec investigation turns up evidence to support our accusation. Otherwise, the Council might use this as an excuse to keep you out of the Spectres," Udina said, then addressed only the Captain, "Come with me, Captain. I want to go over a few things before the hearing. Shepard, you and the others can meet us at the Citadel Tower, top level. I'll make sure you have clearance to get in."

When both the Captain and the Ambassador walked out the door, Williams said to the others, "And that's why I hate politicians." Shepard turned to her and said, "You and me both, Chief."

* * *

Knowing they had some time to kill before having to be at the Citadel Tower, the trio took the time to walk the Presidium. All in all, it seemed as peaceful as their first glance appeared. Alenko seemed to enjoy the quiet and peaceful atmosphere. Williams, on the other hand, seemed a bit eager. Inquiring about it, she said that it was too peaceful for her tastes, though she did appreciate a few moments peace. Shepard was right in-between the two with how he felt. Sure, it was peaceful and everyone needed some quiet time to gather their thoughts and 'smell the roses', as the old saw goes. But there could definitely be too much of a good thing. He had gotten used to the space travel of an Alliance marine. In truth it was about all he knew to do after Mindoir, and it stuck with him. But he always remembered to appreciate these few quiet, peaceful moments.

* * *

Riding up in the elevator of the Citadel Tower, Williams broke the silence that had feel between them. "The Council's not going to ask us questions, are they?"

Shepard let Alenko answer, "I doubt it. We turned in our reports. Now we just have to trust the Ambassador."

That last part didn't make Shepard feel any better about the situation. Fortunately, the elevator has reached its destination, and they made their way into the Tower. When they reached their first flight of stairs, they noticed two turians having a discussion. One of the turians they now recognized as Executor Pallin, head of C-Sec. The other they didn't recognize, was talking.

"Saren's hiding something! Give me more time. Stall them," he said motioning his head towards the far end of the room.

"Stall the Council?' started Pallin in an unbelieving tone. "Don't be ridiculous. Your investigation is over, Garrus," and with that, Pallin walked away. The other turian, now known as Garrus, turned and noticed the three of them standing there off to the side. He walked over to them.

"Commander Shepard?" he asked. Shepard nodded in response. "Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren."

Hoping for good news, despite the argument he had just witnessed telling him there wasn't any, Shepard asked, "Did you find anything I should be aware of?"

Garrus crossed his arms, obviously annoyed with what he was going to say. "Saren's a Spectre, most of his data is classified. I couldn't find anything solid. But I know he's hiding something. Like you humans say, I feel it in my gut."

"I think the Council is ready for us, Commander," Alenko said, not wanting to be late for the meeting considering the current view of things.

"Good luck, Shepard," Garrus said, walking away, "Maybe they'll listen to you."

Making their way up all the stairs to the other end of the room, they found Captain Anderson at the top of the next to last flight of stairs. Behind him, at the very end of the room, they could see a large hologram of a turian. Nodding to the Captain, he hurriedly said, "The hearings already started. Come on."

Alenko and Williams stayed further behind the Captain and Shepard as they made their way to stand behind the Ambassador. Taking that short moment walking to observe the current situation, Shepard already felt his headache from before coming back full swing. He was never one for politics, but most anyone could see what was going on here, and where it was going. The Council had heard from the head of C-Sec by now, and had begun to say so to the Ambassador. The hologram was another comm. link hologram, and it currently showed whom he could only assume was Saren, the turian this council meeting was, for the most part, about. The fact that Saren wasn't there in person and was there via some comm. channel spoke volumes. And the current tones of everyone's voices, the Council members and the Ambassador, spoke even more for how well things were going, which was not at all.

"The geth attack is a matter of some concern, but there is nothing to indicate Saren was involved," the asari council member said, still sounding like she was hoping to quell the arguing with her tone of voice.

"The investigation by Citadel Security turned up no evidence to support your charge of treason," stated the turian member.

But the Ambassador didn't plan to give in, "An eyewitness saw him kill Nihlus in cold blood!"

"We've read the Eden Prime reports, Ambassador," the salarian council member said, "The testimony of one traumatized dockworker is hardly compelling proof."

Shepard felt himself saying the same thing that Williams said back in the Ambassador's office: I hate politicians. He had to admit though, that the salarian had a point. And while two traumatized witnesses wasn't much better, remembering the near insane scientist Dr. Manuel, it still said something that two different people saw another turian before the attack, and one of them even heard his name. It wasn't the strongest point, but it should still have been enough to raise a few eyebrows.

"I resent these accusations," started the hologram of Saren, "Nihlus was a fellow Spectre, and a friend."

"That just let you catch him off guard!" Anderson said. The hologram looked towards him.

"Captain Anderson," Saren said with what was probably the turian equivalent of a smirk, "You always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me." Then he turned to look at Shepard. "And this must be your protégé, Commander Shepard. The one who let the beacon get destroyed."

Tired of staying quiet, Shepard decided to point out the obvious, "The mission to Eden Prime was top secret. The only way you could know about the beacon is if you were there!"

"With Nihlus dead, his files passed on to me," Saren responded easily, "I read the Eden Prime report. I was unimpressed." He turned to address the Council with his next statement. "But what can you expect from a human?"

"Saren despises humanity! That's why he attacked Eden Prime!" Shepard said, starting to get pissed. But Saren met his challenge head on.

"Your species needs to learn its place, Shepard. You're not ready to join the Council. You're not even ready to join the Spectres."

The Ambassador took up the challenge this time, sounding like he took Saren's words as a personal insult. "He has no right to say that! That's not his decision!"

The asari turned to look up at Sarens projection, "Shepard's admission into the Spectres is not the purpose of this meeting."

"This meeting has no purpose," Saren said, sounding annoyed, "The humans are wasting your time, Councilor, and mine."

"There is still one outstanding issue," the Captain said, trying to refocus the meeting. "Commander Shepard's vision. It may have been triggered by the beacon."

"Are we allowing dreams into evidence now?" Saren said. "How can I defend my innocence against this kind of testimony?"

"I agree," the turian councilor said, "Out judgment must be based on facts and evidence, not wild imaginings and reckless speculations."

And with that, there went the last chance they had to prove Saren was a traitor. The salarian councilor then said, "Is there anything else you wish to add, Commander Shepard?"

He could have added that there were two people who saw a turian, one of which identified Saren and could probably do so in a line-up. He could have said that absolutely no one could explain what happened with the beacon and that it could easily have the effect of giving a person visions. He could have also said that not enough time was given for a full and proper investigation by C-Sec. But Shepard was now fed up with the politics he had seen used in this room.

"You've made your decision. I won't wasn't my breath."

He saw the turian shake his head at what he said. Then the asari turned to address the room. "The Council has found no evidence of any connection between Saren and the geth. Ambassador, your petition to have him disbarred from the Spectres is denied."

In a pleased voice, Saren's image said, "I'm glad to see justice was served," and then faded out. That was what did it for Shepard. The fact that someone had actually managed to use his position and knowledge of politics to twist them up and completely deceive the people who are supposed to keep someone like him in check. He even had the arrogance to rub it in their faces with that last remark. Justice was a big deal to Shepard, and to finish off with an insult like that was not a smart thing to do, especially with Shepard involved. Shepard knew then and there that something had to be done.

Regrouping down a flight of stairs and off to the side, the Ambassador started their talk with, "It was a mistake bringing you into that hearing, Captain. You and Saren have too much history. It made the Council question our motives."

Ignoring the way he was spoken to, Anderson kept the conversation on Saren. "I know Saren. He's working with the geth for one reason: to exterminate the entire human race!"

Wanting to get some answers as to all the supposed history that kept coming up, Shepard decided to ask about it. "Tell me about this history between you and Saren."

Calming down a bit, Anderson said, "I worked with him on a mission a long time ago. Thinks went bad… real bad," he looked down, remembering that time but then stopped himself. "We shouldn't talk about this here. But I know what he is like. And he has to be stopped."

Knowing he wouldn't get anything else here, not that he wanted to bring a bad memory out in a public place like this, Shepard moved on. "So what's our next step?"

Udina brought his hand up to his mouth in a usual thinking gesture. "As a Spectre, he's virtually untouchable. We need to find some way to expose him."

Alenko suddenly remembered something and said, "What about Garrus, that C-Sec investigator? We saw him arguing with the executor."

"That's right!" Williams said next, remembering the argument herself, "He was asking for more time to finish his report. Seems like he was close to finding something on Saren."

Thinking it was a good idea, Shepard turned to the Ambassador and the Captain, asking, "Any idea where we can find him?"

Udina spoke up, "I have a contact in C-Sec who can help us track Garrus down. His name is Harkin."

"Forget it," Anderson said immediately, "They suspended Harkin last month, drinking on the job. I won't waste my time with him."

Before Shepard could ask why, Udina said, "You won't have to. I don't want the Council using your past history with Saren as an excuse to ignore anything we turn up."

While he didn't like how he had just treated the Captain, Shepard couldn't help but see the merit in what Udina had said. If the Captain found anything, someone could say he fabricated or planted it so that he could take down Saren. Whatever had happened between those two, it was enough to cause them all that much trouble. "I'll find the evidence we need. I won't let you down, Captain."

Seeing that Shepard would take care of the legwork, Udina said, "I need to take care of some business. Captain, meet me in my office later." And with that, Udina left. Anderson turned to Shepard and said, "Harkins probably getting in Chora's Den. It's a dingy little club in the lower section of the wards." Anderson obviously had contempt for the man, and from what Shepard had just heard, he wasn't too fond of using him as a lead either.

"Are there any other leads?"

"You should talk to Barla Von, over in the Financial District. Rumor has it he's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"The Shadow Broker?"

"An information dealer, buys and sells secrets to the highest bidder. I've heard Barla Von is one of his top representatives. He might know something about Saren. But his information doesn't come cheap."

Shepard inquired about a few more details, thinking any information was better than too little. Deciding it was time to move out, Shepard bid his Captain farewell. "Good luck, Shepard. I'll be in the Ambassador's office if you need anything else."

* * *

Walking towards the elevator that would take them back down to the Presidium, the three chatting lightly about what had just happened.

"I can't believe the Council just ignored all our evidence!" Williams exclaimed.

Alenko responded in a even, yet disappointed tone, "They don't want to believe that their top agent can betray them. It's natural for them to not want to believe it."

"That still doesn't make it right, but I know where you're coming from, Kaiden," Shepard said as the elevator went down. "I think the worst part for me though was that they wouldn't consider him to be a traitor for even a second, and they only looked for answers that they wanted, not the answers that was out there."

"Yeah, I can see how that would get to someone, sir," Alenko said, nodding in agreement.

"I thought the worst part for you was that last thing Saren said before they cut the comm. link. You tensed up right when he said it," Williams laughed a bit, "I was expecting to see your biotics to flare up or something, sir."

Chuckling to himself, Shepard said, "Oh trust me, it took all I had not to show what I was feeling at that point." They all shared a small laugh from that one. Then Shepard noticed that the elevator was almost to the Presidium.

"Well, what do you say we go find some evidence to prove that Saren is a trator?"

The elevator doors opened and they walked out onto the Presidium.

* * *

_Well, I personally am starting to feel better about this. And now it wont be long before I'll be able to share my idea of how to write all this out and post it. I think it'll be a cool idea, and when I get that far, it will definitely help me out with getting these out there for people to read. If they want to, of course. _

_-halfbreed_


	4. Chapter 4

_I know, its been a few weeks since I updated. I really had planned on posting this chapter two or three weeks ago, but life just got so busy. Had a few other plans regarding this as well, but I believe there is an old saw about the best laid plans. And no... I dont know it. I do have some good news though, other than the fact that a new chapter is finally posted. This story has now finally gotten A comment. Yes, a comment. Someone is reading this. Hahaha, anyway, heres a response to that comment:_

_Infernal00: Yes, you have made several very good points, and thanks to your comment, I have decided to go back and see about doing some editing on the past chapters. I do believe I will only need to look into the first two, but I will go back and see what I can do. Hopefully, the story will be more enjoyable. _

_Now, without any more delay, the story! Hope you enjoy, and please comment anything._

* * *

When they had walked out from the elevator and onto the Presidium, Shepard, Williams and Alenko noticed that to the left was the entrance into the Wards. Considering it was the first thing they saw and it was closest, the decided to go on ahead with the Harkin lead that they were given. Walking down a few flights of stairs and riding down one elevator, they walked another hallway and took yet another elevator that would take them down to the Wards.

"So Harkin is our first stop, Commander?" queried Alenko.

"Yeah," Shepard nodded. "Might as well use whatever resource we can. Its not like we have that many to begin with." From what Shepard had heard about Harkin, he really didn't want to deal with him, but like he said, they didn't have much other choice. Also, Shepard always did try to avoid judging someone from what he had heard about them, even if it is more than likely true.

The elevator door opened and they walked down a hallway and to the door at the end. When it opened they found themselves on the main platform of the Presidium Wards. People were all going about their business back and forth, some of them just standing around and talking with a friend. All in all, it was a very lively place, a very different atmosphere than on the Presidium itself. Looking around, Shepard noticed the view that was directly in front of them at the edge of the platform. The trio walked and leaned against the ledge, taking in the view. From this point, they could see all five arms of the Citadel with small lights from individual places on those arms, the passing, entering and exiting ships, as well as the passing dreadnought that was the Destiny Ascension. It was quite a site.

"Big place," Alenko mused.

With a hint of humor and obvious sarcasm, Williams turned to him and said, "That your professional opinion, sir?"

Shepard couldn't help but chuckle a bit at that before saying in a bit of awe, "This isn't a station. It's a city."

"There must be millions here," Alenko continued, not bothered by what Williams said to him because he caught onto her joking tone, "It can't be possible to track everyone coming and going."

"This makes Jump Zero look like a porta-john, and its the largest deep-space station the Alliance has," Williams added.

"Jump Zero was big," Alenko commented, "but this is a whole 'nother scale. Look at the Ward arms. How do they keep all that mass from flying apart."

All the while they are talked to each other, Shepard couldn't help but noticed the differences of their two personalities in the way they talked. Ashley Williams was very much a tomboy, very 'manly', though he would never dare to say that aloud and within earshot of her. Kaiden Alenko was a more reserved, think things through kind of guy, who noticed a bit more detail, or at least wondered about it more, than most others. Despite their differences, they had already proven that they work well together under fire, and in their current conversation they proved that they could, and would, get along when not in combat situations. Seeing and knowing that gave Shepard a warm feeling inside, knowing that they really would be a good team.

Turning back to the view and thinking about all the different people and races that lived on the Citadel, he decided to voice his thoughts again. "The council represents more races than I thought. No wonder they're careful with newcomers."

Alenko apparently agreed with Shepard, saying, "They probably just want to keep everything running. It has to be hard keeping all these cultures working together."

"Or they just don't like humans," Williams added with a bit of a dark undertone.

Shepard found that he didn't agree with what Williams had said. If that were the case, then they wouldn't even be standing there right now. Feeling a bit positive, Shepard decided to say, "Why not? We've got oceans, beautiful women, this emotion called love. According to the old vids, we have everything they want."

Quick to reply, Williams said, "Yeah, well, if you expect to get me in a tin foil mini skirt and thigh high boots, I want dinner first-," then realizing whom all she was saying this to, she quickly added, "-sir!"

Laughing a bit, Alenko said, "That will be enough, Chief," taking up his Lieutenant role.

Shepard, on the other hand, had a feeling that those kinds of comments would just be common from the Gunnery Chief, with her sarcastic nature. So to keep the positive feeling among the group, he said, "At ease, Lieutenant. Can't see her in a skirt anyway."

Stuttering just slightly, Williams replied with false confidence, "Damn straight you cant."

"Ready to move out, sir," Alenko said, helping to stop her from stuttering something else.

Figuring that was a good enough cue to get back to their task, Shepard nodded to them and looked around for a map or something that could tell them where all everything was in the Wards. He noticed that there were different markers around the place that pointed to different establishments, so he found one that said Chora's Den and started that way. Along the way they passed merchants and a pickup area for the Citadel Rapid Transit System, and they also spoke, rather briefly, to someone who was an apparent fan of Commander Shepard. Williams laughed to herself while Shepard awkwardly gave the man, Conrad Verner his autograph. It was obvious to both Williams and Alenko that Shepard wasn't exactly comfortable being treated like some celebrity and being asked for autographs. As soon as Conrad had left, they continued their way down to Chora's Den, much to the relief of Shepard.

When they passed the Lower Ward Markets and turned the corner to Chora's Den, the three of them noticed a few figures across the hall moving rather fast just before hearing one of them say, "That's him. Take him out." They saw the figures holding guns and quickly pulled out their own, knowing they were suddenly targets. Taking cover at the ledge of the pit in the middle of the hall, Williams used her assault rifle to force the attackers into cover while Alenko and Shepard pulled their pistols and charged their biotics. As soon as Williams ducked in cover for her rifle to cool down, their attackers got up to fire their own weapons, but they never got the chance because both Shepard and Alenko's biotic push threw them back against the wall. Shepard immediately moved to the right side and made his way over to the other side all the while firing at the attackers, while Alenko did the same from his position, followed closely by Williams own firing from a cooled down assault rifle. It wasn't long before the attackers stopped trying to get back up.

Moving to Shepard's side next to the bodies, Alenko observed, "Those were Saren's men." He was right. There weren't any insignia that they would check, but it was the only logical conclusion for how all of that just went down: their sudden reaction to the three of them coming around the corner, what they had said and how they tried to attack. Thinking on that though, Shepard realized something.

"Saren definitely knows that I didn't just have some random dream and that the vision I had was real. Whatever information I got from the beacon, he doesn't want me to have it."

"Think we might run into more trouble later, sir?" Williams asked.

"Maybe, there's no way to tell," Shepard said, thinking.

"Probably best to keep our guard up, just in case," Alenko said. Shepard nodded in agreement, then turned to the entrance of Chora's Den.

When they first walked in, they immediately regretted it, or at least Shepard did. The place was basically a stripper bar. It was a circular room with the bar in the middle that was a circle itself and above the bar were a couple of the bar's dancers. There were other dancers, or entertainers, whatever they prefer to be called, around the room at different places with different people watching them. Shepard couldn't help but think that stuff like this seems to run over into just about every species.

The three of them walked towards the left, looking around to try and find Harkin, or someone who might be Harkin. While walking along, Alenko decided to try and start conversation.

"I see why this place is so popular. Its got quite the… uh… view."

"Hey Lieutenant," Williams started to chastise in a humorous tone, "put your tongue back in your mouth before you trip on it."

Shepard couldn't hold in a small laugh at that. He was rather thankful for that little exchange between them. Shepard had felt very uncomfortable and tense since they had walked in, and hearing that helped himself ease up a bit. As they neared a couple krogan, they overheard their, seemingly heated, conversation.

"Back off Wrex. Fist told us to take you down if you showed up."

The one identified as Wrex responded with, "What are you waiting for? I'm right here." He was obviously not afraid to fight with his fellow krogan. He continued, "This is Fist's only warning. If he's smart, he'll take it."

The other one defiantly said, "He's not coming out, Wrex. End of story."

"This story is just beginning," Wrex said as an obvious threat, but seeing he wasn't getting anywhere, turned to leave, almost bumping into Shepard. "Out of my why humans I have no quarrel with you."

As the other krogan went to a door down a hallway at the back of the club and the one called Wrex left the club, Alenko said, "What was that all about?"

"Who cares?" Williams said, "Lets just try not to get caught in the middle."

Shepard nodded in agreement. Getting in between two krogan fighting with each other definitely didn't seem like the best of ideas with the krogan's reputation of being tough and fierce warriors. Turning back around to continue looking for Harkin, Shepard noticed a man sitting rather close to where they were now, wearing the basic clothing style but in what he recognized as C-Sec colors.

Walking up to him, the man said, "Alliance military. Hmph," he seemed to try and laugh, "I coulda been a marine, you know. Instead I joined the goddamned Citadel Security. Biggest mistake of my life." The way he said all of that, and also saying he was a member of C-Sec, told Shepard that this was probably the guy they were looking for.

"Harkin, right?" Shepard started, deciding to get straight to business so that they could get out of there, "I was told you could help me find someone. A turian C-Sec officer named Garrus."

"Garrus?" Harkin almost jumped and then really laughed this time. "You must be one of Captain Anderson's crew. Poor bastard's still trying to bring Saren down, huh?" he said while shaking his head slightly, "Yeah, I know where Garrus is, but you gotta tell me something first. Did the captain let you in on his big secret?" Harkin said the last part with a bit of a smirk on his face.

It was obviously bait for something, but Shepard wasn't interested in anything that would keep him here any longer than he had to be. "I just need to know where Garrus is."

"But its all related don't you see?" Harkin said, obviously wanting to say whatever it was he wanted to say, "The Captain was a Spectre. Didn't know that, did you? It was all very hush-hush. The first human ever given that honor and he blew it. Screwed up his mission so bad they kicked him out. 'Course, he blames Saren. Said the turian set him up."

Shepard would have just completely ignored everything Harkin said if it didn't seem to line up with whatever the Captain had said himself about something happening between him and Saren. But Shepard wouldn't find out about this through the grapevine, and especially not from Harkin. But when he thought about it, he realized something.

"You said they covered all this up. How'd you hear about it?"

"I spent twenty years working cases here on the Citadel," Harkin started, almost sounding like he was retelling a proud story to someone, "People on this station love to talk. Secrets are like herpes. If you got 'em, you might as well spread 'em around."

That wasn't exactly a metaphor Shepard liked to hear. It was almost as bad as the music and the volume of the music in this place. Shepard was definitely ready to get out of here. "Just tell me where Garrus is."

"Garrus was sniffing around Dr. Michel's office. She runs a med clinic on the other side of the Wards. Last I heard, he was going back there."

Finally having gotten what he wanted, Shepard said, "I'm outta here."

As they left, they heard Harkin mutter, "Yeah, go, get outta here. Let me drink in peace."

* * *

When they left Chora's Den, all of them remembered that they hadn't had anything to eat since before they left the Normandy. Of course while finding Garrus and evidence against Saren was important, everybody had to eat to keep going. So the three of them decided to find a place to have a quick bite so that they could get back to work. Talking it out, Alenko mentioned seeing a place they could visit back on the Presidium, so the three of them went back to the Presidium to eat and get off of their feet for a few moments. It took them a little while to get back to the Presidium and to find the place, but when they got there they enjoyed some good food and a bit of time to just talk between them. When they came up on the subject of the leads they were chasing down, Alenko mentioned the Shadow Broker agent that Captain Anderson told them about back in the Citadel Tower, Barla Von. Remembering that this Barla Von was on the Presidium, they decided to see him before they went back into the Wards to find Garrus.

* * *

Finding his office was easy enough, as it was across the way from where they were at, located in the Financial District of the Presidium. Walking it, they found a volus standing behind a desk. He looked up and they heard his suits breather just before he spoke in a friendly tone, "What's this? One of the Earth Clan? Ah, a very famous one, yes? You are the one called Shepard. The tale of how you survived the great tragedy of Akuze is truly remarkable." It seems most people know who I am around here, Shepard thought. While he wasn't too proud about being knowing for surviving Akuze, Shepard knew that this wasn't the time to bring that up. So he decided to keep this friendly. "You've got me at a disadvantage here…"

"Forgive me, Earth-clan. My name is Barla Von. My job makes it necessary for me to keep informed. I am a financial advisor to many important clients here on the Citadel. When someone as important as yourself arrives on the station, I take notice."

"I heard you work for the Shadow Broker. Do you have any information on Saren?" Shepard asked, thinking that if Barla Von knew who he was, then he would know who Saren was as well. Luckily, Shepard was right.

"You're very blunt, Shepard. But you're right," Barla Von said, not seeming to have been offended by the straightforwardness he mentioned Shepard starting the conversation with, "I am an agent for the Shadow Broker. And I do know something about Saren."

Keeping the conversation going, Shepard said, "I hear your information can be expensive."

Nodding a bit, Barla Von said, "Normally this information would cost a small fortune. But these are exceptional circumstances. So I am going to give it to you for free."

Shepard wasn't expecting that. So far, nothing had gone as well as this seemed to. Williams seemed to think the same thing, saying, "What's the catch?"

"There is no catch. The Shadow Broker is quite upset with Saren right now. They used to do a lot of business. Until Saren turned on him," Barla Von replied.

"Seems like Saren has done that a lot lately," Shepard said, deciding to just go with things instead of questioning them further.

Taking the hint, Barla Von proceeded to tell them what they wanted to know, "I don't know the details, but the Shadow Broker hired a freelancer to deal with it. A krogan mercenary named Urdnot Wrex." That rang a bell in Shepard's mind. "I heard he might be paying a visit to Citadel Security. You may be able to catch him there before he leaves. He would know more about what you seek."

Just as Barla Von was finishing, Shepard remembered that the krogan he was referring to, Wrex, was the krogan they had seen in Chora's Den who was looking for someone, arguing with another krogan who was acting as a bouncer for the club. Remembering that, Shepard couldn't help but think that whatever this Wrex was after in Chora's Den is related to something involving Saren, something that hopefully would end up being enough evidence to prove that Saren is a traitor. Wrapping up his conversation with Barla Von, the three of them left.

About halfway across a bridge just outside of Barla Von's office, the three of them stopped to think. Williams sat against the railing facing the Mass Relay Statue, Alenko stood with his back to it, just barely leaning against his own railing while Shepard leaned down resting on his arms with his back to the Relay Statue as well, just looking into the waters under the bridge.

Alenko was the first to start. "Well that went better than expected. Free information from an information broker. Honestly expected to use every credit we had to get anything from him."

"Yeah well now we have two possible options here. Either we go find a turian who might have a lead of his own, or we go look for a krogan who might have information. Personally, and I never thought I'd say this, I think we should find the turian, Garrus. Dealing with a krogan is like walking straight into a fight, and we've already been through enough of those," Williams said, putting in her opinion.

Nodding, Alenko added, "And we already saw how eager to fight krogan are back down in Chora's Den. If we wanted to avoid a fight, that might be our best option."

Shepard, who was still leaning forward against the railing, voiced his own thoughts. "That may be true, but we don't know what kind of lead Garrus has. And this krogan, Wrex, may have the actual information we need to expose Saren. Either way, we could win or loose."

"Its your call, Commander," Alenko said evenly with his military training behind it.

Shepard continued to look into the waters, thinking. He could see the good and bad of either choice, and he had to make a decision soon. Time had proven that it wasn't always on their side. Thinking a few moments, he stood up and turned to his team, saying, "Ok, instead of one or the other, we are going to try and go for both. The stronger the evidence against Saren, the better."

Standing up herself, Williams said, "So which to we start with, sir?"

"If I remember right," Shepard said, looking around the Presidium and thinking on a map he had seen earlier, "if we take the elevator down to C-Sec, we can take the back elevator down into the Wards and find the Med Clinic not far from there."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Williams said.

Alenko nodded, standing beside her, "Ready to go when you are, Commander."

* * *

They found the elevator just below the area near the Human Embassy. When they stepped out, the noticed to the right was a small crowd. It seemed to be mostly made up of C-Sec officers, but in the middle of them was a familiar looking krogan in red armor. The group was obviously having a heated discussion. Shepard walked up to the group, close enough to listen in on the conversation, but far away enough not to draw attention from the C-Sec officers.

A human C-Sec officer stepped up and started talking. "Witnesses saw you making threats in Fist's Bar. Stay away from him."

"I don't take orders from you."

"This is your last warning, Wrex," the officer continued.

Wrex leaned in slightly saying, rather boldly, "You should warn Fist. I will kill him."

The officer took a small step back, looking to his fellow officers, then tried to sound confident in the face of a krogan. "You want me to arrest you?"

Wrex seemed to laugh when he said, "I want you to try."

There was a pause here, almost as to see whether someone _would_ try to arrest an angry krogan. Nobody moved. Before the conversation could continue, Wrex noticed Shepard and his squad standing off to the side. Seeing that Shepard was either waiting to talk to him or was just waiting for a fight to break out in C-Sec, Wrex started walking towards him, ignoring the human C-Sec officer who was saying, "Go on. Get out of here."

"Yes, human?" Wrex said as he got close.

Doing his best not to show any hint of how wary he was, Shepard said, "I'm trying to bring down a Spectre named Saren. Barla Von said to talk to you."

"Barla Von is a wise man. We may share a common goal, human."

Crossing his arms, hoping it would show he wasn't at all nervous about talking to a krogan who could kill him easily, Shepard said, "Enlighten me."

"I've been hired to kill the owner of Chora's Den. A man named Fist. He did something very foolish," Wrex said, shaking his head slightly. It was then that Shepard started to put the pieces together. It seemed this was all connected somehow. Seeing Wrex in Chora's Den, hearing talk about the clubs owner, Fist, it all seemed to fit. But there were still a few pieces missing. Better to have every piece for a full picture, he thought.

"What did he do?"

"He betrayed the Shadow Broker," Wrex said simply, then continued, "A quarian showed up here on the Citadel. She wanted to trade information for a safe place to hide, so she went to Fist. He promised to arrange a meeting with the Shadow Broker. Instead, he contacted Saren."

"So what does Saren have to do with this?"

"Well, the quarian has something that connects Saren to the Geth." That was it, Shepard thought. That was what they were looking for, and it was here on the Citadel. Wrex continued saying, "Saren doesn't want what she has to be public. He paid Fist a small fortune for her."

"If we can get our hands on that evidence, then we can prove that Saren's a traitor," Alenko said, obviously having the same thoughts as Shepard. However, even though they knew that there was evidence on the station, Shepard knew there was no way to tell where that evidence, and the quarian, was now. Voicing his thoughts, he said, "Saren might already have her."

"Last I heard, Fist still had her," Wrex said, "Probably somewhere inside his club. You help me kill Fist, and she's all yours."

Shepard didn't have to think long on that proposal. It would always be better to have a krogan on your side than on the other, and Shepard knew that they could use any help they could get. Wrex sounded willing to help, so why not let him? Shepard stuck out his hand saying, "Deal."

As they shook on his, Shepard noticing Wrex's strong grip and hoping that his arm stayed attached to his shoulder, he heard Williams say, "Commander, what about Garrus, that turian? Think we could still use his help too?"

"He was here just before you showed up. Said he was going to follow up a lead on his investigation. Wanted to speak to the doctor at the med-clinic in the Wards."

"Then we didn't miss him by much. Lets go and see if he has anything else we can use against Saren," Shepard said. The group, now made up of four members, made their way behind a docking elevator and took the smaller elevator behind it down to the Wards.

* * *

They found the med-clinic not too far from the elevator, just up a flight of stairs. When they walked to the door and it automatically opened, Shepard noticed that the entire place was basically one big room with a see through counter wall only running half way through the room. However, that wasn't the first thing he or the others with him noticed. At said counter was the turian they were looking for, Garrus, squatting down and moving to the corner where you walked passed to get into the rest of the room, and he had his gun drawn. Around that corner, they saw a group of guys standing around a woman in a white doctors outfit, and they didn't seem to need medical treatment, and she appeared to be in distress of that fact.

"I didn't tell anyone, I swear!" she cried out in a heavy accent.

"That was smart, Doc," a human in the group said, "Now if Garrus comes around, you stay smart and keep your mouth shut, or-" It was then that he noticed Shepard and his group coming in, each of them drawing their guns: Wrex his shotgun, Williams and Alenko got out their assault rifles and Shepard his pistol. The guy grabbed the doctor and used her as a human shield against Shepard, shouting, "Who are you?"

Seeing him grab the doctor, Shepard pointed his pistol right at him, shouting in return, "Let her go!" Shepard noticed Garrus chose that point to reveal himself as he jumped out and took quick aim with his own pistol and shot the guy holding the doctor in the head, missing her and killing him. The doctor yelled, then ducked for cover as she realized she was in no ones grasp. The other three guys merely pointed there guns at any of the five other people with guns in the room, not knowing what to do.

Right before they decided to just shot randomly, Shepard and his unit quickly made for cover. As Shepard got into the corner that Garrus had been in before, the gunfire began. Williams was behind him, giving suppressive fire with Alenko, forcing the attackers into cover on the other side of the room, two behind walled areas for patient beds and one behind a storage crate. As one leaned out to fire back, Shepard leaned out himself and fired quick accurate shots right at him, the first two quickly knocking him off balance and out of cover and the rest killing him. Shepard then quickly moved from the corner of the counter to the first wall dividing the patient beds. He vaguely noticed Wrex moving to the spot he was just at.

While he was in cover, Shepard heard Williams and Alenko continue firing in turns so that their guns wouldn't completely over heat. He looked to Wrex who had just come out of cover and saw him fire a carnage shot from his shotgun to the back corner opposite from the storage container. As Shepard heard the sounds of the carnage shot hitting the guy that has stepped out of cover from there, killing him, he charged his biotics. Stepping out of cover, Shepard used his biotics to push the storage container, with someone still behind it, against the wall hard. The third and last guy stumbled out from behind it and was hit multiple times by Alenko and Williams oppressive fire, killing him.

With the room clear, Shepard and his team put away their guns and gathered around Garrus and Doctor Michelle. Garrus turned to Shepard and said, "Perfect timing, Shepard. Gave me a clear shot at that bastard."

Shepard, while impressed with his accuracy, wasn't as thrilled as Garrus was. "What were you thinking? You could have hit the hostage!"

Garrus obviously wasn't expecting that response, as he tried to explain himself, "There wasn't time to think, I just reacted. I didn't mean…" he turned to the doctor, "Doctor Michelle, are you hurt?"

"No, I'm okay thanks to you," she said, addressing all of them, "all of you."

"I know those men threatened you," Shepard started, trying to be reassuring, "but if you tell us who they work for, we can protect you."

"They work for Fist," she said, slightly wringing her hands together, "They wanted to shut me up, keep me from telling Garrus about the quarian."

"The one I told you about, Shepard," Wrex said, confirming Shepard's own thoughts. It all seemed like it was coming together. There was a quarian on the Citadel, and she had information connecting Saren to the Geth. She was on the run from people working for Saren trying to get that information from her, and most likely kill her for the hell of it, and to keep her from telling anyone about it. Garrus found out about the quarian visiting Doctor Michelle at one point, and so did these goons who tried to keep the doctor quiet about that visit. Fist, the one who hired these guys, had betrayed the Shadow Broker and might have the quarian with him now. Fist was hoping to cover his tracks and make a profit. Now all that mattered was that this quarian, and the evidence she had, was in danger of being given over to Saren, and Fist was their only way to her.

Garrus seemed to have caught himself up on what they already knew, cause the next thing he said was, "She must be able to link Saren to the geth. There's no way the Council can ignore this!"

With his mind made up, Shepard said, "It's time we paid this Fist a visit."

Garrus turned to him immediately saying, "This is your show, Shepard. But I want to bring Saren down as much as you do. I'm coming with you."

"Wait a sec," Williams said, sounding curious about something, "Your a turian. Why would you want to help bring Saren down?"

Garrus looked to her and then back to Shepard while he explained, "I couldn't find the proof I needed in my investigation. But I know what was really going on. Saren is a traitor to the Council and a disgrace to my people! Someone needs to bring him down." It was obvious Garrus meant what he said by the frustration he showed. Like before, Shepard didn't have to think long before he said, "Welcome aboard, Garrus." It was always better to have more friends with you when facing even more enemies. They exchanged a few more words between each other to make sure everyone was on the same page with everything, as well as with Dr. Michelle to be sure she was alright before they left, heading back to Chora's Den, straight to Fist and to the quarian.

* * *

The five of them had made it through the Lower Wards Markets and were walking past a control screen for the Citadel Rapid Transit System, entering the hallway where Shepard, Williams and Alenko were attacked earlier. Right away, Shepard noticed something was different. At first, he couldn't place what it was, but the closer they got towards the clubs entrance, the slower the pace he took until he realized that there was no sound coming from the inside. The music that the entertainers danced to wasn't playing and there weren't any sounds of conversation or of people moving about.

The others seemed to notice this as well, as Garrus said, "Looks like it's shut down."

Wrex said in turn, "Fist knows we're coming."

"If that's the case, then be ready," Shepard said, drawing his pistol. He saw Wrex grab his shotgun, Williams, Garrus and Alenko their assault rifles. "Here's the plan: Garrus, Wrex, you're with me. We'll be going into the back of the club as soon as we clear the main area. I assume that's where Fist is?" He saw Wrex nod his head and continued, "Good. Alenko, I want you and Williams to cover the main room and the exit while we are in the back with Fist, in case he tries to call in any help from his or Saren's men. Understood?" Everyone nodded their consent and readied their positions at the door.

As soon as the door opened, Williams and Garrus leaned out from both sides of the door and took aim at the man behind the bar who had a gun already pointed at them. When the man behind the bar fell, one man above the bar and different ones taking cover behind different tables began firing back, forcing both Williams and Garrus back into cover. Shepard decided to give them more cover inside the club. He charged up his biotics and stepped through the door, using his biotic push to throw the guy above the bar to the ground, more than likely knocking him out or crippling him from the fall. Without fire from above the bar, the group had more room to take cover inside the door and the half walls next to it, cover that Garrus, Shepard and Williams took as soon as they could.

They held that position while Alenko gave cover fire from the right side of the door covering the left side of the room while Wrex covered the right side of the room from the left side of the door. Right as the room seemed to be clear, Shepard heard Wrex call out, "Krogan on the right!" Shepard switched his pistol for his shotgun and leaned over his cover to see the enemy krogan making his way towards them. Shepard stepped out of his cover, firing shots at the krogan to draw his attention from the group while he called out to Alenko, "Allenko! Use Warp on this guy, now! Wrex, get ready!" As soon as he saw the blue aura of the biotic attack from Alenko, Shepard charged his shotgun and cried "Now!" to Wrex. They both shot out Carnage shots from their shotguns, effectively taking down the enemy krogan. Taking a quick look, seeing the room clear at first, Shepard ordered the group to move up and take positions. Williams and Alenko found places near cover, one on the right the other on the left, that gave them a view of most of the room. Shepard made his way towards the back of the club with both Wrex and Garrus to find Fist.

Right as they were walking into the hallway that lead to the back door Shepard had seen Wrex wanting to get into earlier, Shepard heard the sound of a step begin taken, but it was coming from a higher direction than from the floor. Thinking quickly, Shepard pulled his pistol out, turned around and took aim at a man that had been hiding behind the center pillar in the area above the bar where the first guy had been. This guy had hoped to catch them off guard with their backs turned, but now he was staring at the barrel of Shepard's gun from a distance. They stood there for just a moment before the guy above the bar made to move his own gun to aim at Shepard when Shepard used his biotic push to force him against the pillar he had been hiding behind, knocking him out cold. Shepard put away his gun and continued on towards the door. When it opened, there stood two more guys holding guns, but it was obvious they weren't hired to use them. Both of them were in horrible stances and one of them was shaking while holding his gun. It was the shaking one that spoke though.

"Stay right there! Don't come any closer!"

"Warehouse workers," Garrus said, "All the real guards must be dead."

Looking that them both, Shepard decided to talk them out of a fight. "This would be a good time to find a new place to work."

Thankfully, they both seemed to agree as they put their guns down and began walking away, saying, "Yeah, good idea." "I never really liked Fist anyway."

"It would've been quicker to just kill them," Wrex said.

Garrus responded with, "Shooting people isn't always the answer."

They continued on through the next door and to the left they found, running behind a few couches in the room, Fist. He ran to a console and pressed a button saying, "Why do I have to do everything myself? Time to die, little soldiers!" On both sides of the couches appeared two gun turrets that began firing. Wrex had made it to the far side of the hall they had entered in and had taken cover at that corner while Garrus and Shepard took cover at the wall closest to the door they had come in. Shepard leaned around the corner to try and get an angle to fire at said turrets, but found his shields nearly completely gone within moments.

Leaning back against the wall, Garrus looked to him and asked, "Got a plan, Commander?"

Thinking for a moment, Shepard said, "Maybe. Wrex!" the krogan looked over, "Got any grenades?"

"Yeah, I got two ready to go."

Shepard nodded then said, while readying his own grenades, "Throw them at the left turret when I say so." Seeing him nod and prep his grenades, Shepard turned to Garrus and said, "Even if this doesn't take out those turrets, I want you to take cover behind the couch while we draw their fire." Garrus nodded his understanding and readied his assault rifle, waiting for the signal.

Shepard took a quick breath and then yelled, "Now!" and he leaned out and threw his grenade towards the right turret, and he saw out of the corner of his eye that Wrex was doing the same but towards the left turret. Ducking back into cover to let his shields recharge, Shepard heard the sounds of the grenades exploding. He looked to Garrus as the turian made his way around the corner and into cover behind the couch. A second later he heard Garrus call them over, saying that the turrets were destroyed. When Shepard walked around, he saw Fist on the ground on the other side of the couches, his weapon back in the corner out of reach. But to emphasize the fact that he couldn't shoot back, Shepard held his own pistol to Fist's head.

"Wait! Don't kill me! I surrender!"

"Where's the quarian?" Shepard asked, still pointing his gun at him to show his seriousness.

"She's not here, I don't know where she is and that's the truth."

Wrex spoke up at that, saying, "He's no use to you. Let me kill him." He almost sounded excited about that, Shepard thought. But then he remembered that Wrex was a krogan.

"Wait! Wait!" Fist cried out, "I don't know where the quarian is, but I know where you can find her. She came to me with information she wanted to sell to the Shadow Broker. She knew I was an agent, but she wouldn't give the information. Said she'd only deal with the Shadow Broker himself."

"Face to face? Impossible. Even I was hired through an agent," Wrex said.

"Nobody meets the Shadow Broker. Ever. Even I don't know his true identity," Fist said, explaining what he knew, "But she didn't know that. I told her I'd set up a meeting. When she shows up though, it'll be Saren's men waiting for her."

Shepard wasn't about to loose anyone else while Saren went about free, and knowing that someone was about to be killed because of information that could expose Saren pissed him off, and he showed it as he grabbed the front of Fist's armor and brought him face to face, saying, "Give me the location. Now."

"Here in the Wards," Shepard let go of him, "The back alley by the Markets. She's supposed to meet him right now. You can still make it if you hurry."

Shepard had started to back away to leave when Wrex suddenly fired his shotgun at pointblank range, killing Fist in one shot, armor or not. Garrus shouted, "What are you doing?"

"The Shadow Broker paid me to kill him," Wrex stated simply, "I don't leave jobs half done."

Shepard turned to face Wrex and said sharply, "We don't shoot unarmed prisoners."

"How many people died because of him? He brought this on himself. Besides, we have more pressing concerns." He was right, and Shepard knew it. While he didn't mean for Fist to turn up dead instead of in a jail cell, he knew they had to leave now if they were going to catch the quarian and warn her and possibly talk her into giving them the information she had.

Garrus shared his thoughts, saying, "That quarian's dead if we don't go now."

They walked back into the club and noticed that there were more bodies than there had been before. As Shepard stepped over one, Williams walked up to him with Alenko coming up behind her from his position on the other side of the room.

Seeing his questioning look at the body he had just stepped over, Williams said, "Reinforcements, sir. Came in while you were in the back."

Alenko then said, "Did you find the quarian, Commander? Did she have anything on Saren?"

"The quarian wasn't back there, only Fist. He set up a fake meeting between her and the Shadow Broker, only instead of the Shadow Broker, its going to be some of Saren's men," Shepard explained.

Garrus joined in at that point, saying, "She's on her way to the back alley behind the Wards, that's where the meet is."

Turning to Williams and Alenko, Shepard said, "We need to hurry. If we're lucky, we can catch her before she gets there. Alenko, I want you and Williams to go on and head back to Ambassador Udina's office and explain what happened down here. An attack on a club, even this one, will have drawn someone's attention. We'll go after the quarian."

"Aye aye, Commander," Alenko said. Both he and Williams saluted and then left.

Shepard, Garrus and Wrex wasn't too far behind them, taking a left turn instead of going through the door that lead to the Markets. Coming up a flight of stairs, Shepard stopped at the next flight that lead down and saw the quarian standing there with a turian and two salarians. The two salarians were in full body armor and were in the back, almost as though they were waiting for a signal. The turian, who had a face mask on, had just had his hand slapped away by the quarian in front of him. He backed up a bit and slightly turned his head. This was apparently what the salarians were waiting for, as they then walked forward, drawing their guns. Faster then anyone around had noticed at first, Shepard's team included, the quarian jumped to a stack of crates behind her as a grenade she threw exploded, knocking the two salarians onto their backs.

Shepard saw the turian taking out his own gun and decided that was the time to move. He quickly drew his own pistol and used a biotic Throw to get the turian away from the quarian's cover behind the crates. He quickly went into his own cover next to Garrus, who had drawn his sniper rifle and taken position behind a crate that was right at the bottom of the stairs. He looked over and noticed Wrex prepping a Carnage shot with his shotgun in the middle of the stairs, taking some hits on his shields from the salarians shooting at the only target out of cover. Shepard then readied himself with his pistol, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As soon as he heard Wrex's Carnage shot, Shepard opened his eyes, leaned out of cover and took aim on the turian. After several well aimed shots, the turian fell over. Shepard looked over and noticed the salarian that Wrex and taken out with the Carnage shot trying to feebly get up, but never got the chance as Shepard finished him off with one shot. Before he could continue to the last one, Shepard saw a sniper trail were the last salarian had once stood. Shepard shook his head and regained his focus, looking at Garrus as he stood and put up his sniper rifle.

"Nice shot, Garrus," he said, standing up and putting away his own weapon, Wrex doing the same.

"Thanks, Commander. You did pretty well, yourself, with just that pistol." Shepard patted Garrus on the shoulder and made the rest of the way down the stairs, nodding to Wrex for his own accomplishment, to which Wrex returned. Shepard turned around and saw the quarian now standing in the hallway, looking towards them. She seemed rather young, but not underage. Her visor was a blue tint, and Shepard couldn't help but wonder if that was what color skin quarians had.

When they got to her, Shepard noticed that she seemed rather wary of them, if only a little bit, but she also seemed upset as well. Of course Shepard just noticed this from her body language, as he couldn't see her face.

"Fist set me up!" she said, obviously mad, "I knew I couldn't trust him!"

Not seeing any obvious signs of being injured, Shepard asked, "Were you hurt in the fight?"

"I know how to look after myself," she said, still sounding irritated, but then she seemed to calm herself and said, "Not that I don't appreciate the help. Who are you?"

"Commander Shepard, with the Alliance military," Shepard stated in a formal tone, "I'm looking for evidence against a turian Spectre named Saren."

"Then I have a chance to repay you for saving my life," she said, nodding her head a bit, "But not here. We need to go somewhere safe."

"We should take her to the Human Embassy," Garrus stated, "Your Ambassador will want to see this anyway."

Shepard nodded, saying, "Good idea. Williams and Alenko will be there by now. Let's go."

After making sure that the quarian was alright with following them, they set off for the Presidium once again, following Garrus's lead, as he knew the Citadel better than the rest of them.

* * *

_Well, what do you think? I finally took some time to redo this ending. Found a few mistakes i had in there as well. Hope this sounds better than it did. _

_Truthfully I wanted to end this chapter AFTER Shepard is made a Spectre, but it started to get too long, so I decided to end it here. Hopefully it will work out. I will be working on the next chapter, and it should work to where itll end with Shepard getting his Spectre status, command of the Normandy, and end with his speech. At least, thats the plan._

_Please, comment, and say anything you want to. Until next time!_

_-halfbreed_


	5. Chapter 5

_You know what they say about the best laid plans... I really wanted to end this bit with this chapter, but there will be at least one other chapter here. And this chapter really adds personalization, so i do hope you all enjoy this one. _

_In writing this chapter, I have felt that writers bug coming back to me, and that is just an awesome thing, because now i can write this out and look into other writing options. Now that, i feel really good about._

_Please enjoy and comment on anything at all, and say anything you want. This fic could really use some comments. _

* * *

Finally making it back to the Human Embassy, Shepard and his current team walked into the Ambassadors office. The first thing he noticed was that Alenko and Williams were standing just off to the side, seeming as though they were merely waiting. Sharing a look with them told Shepard that they had tried to explain what they had been doing to the Ambassador and that it still didn't sit well with him. The next thing he noticed was that Captain Anderson was facing them, standing in front of the Ambassador, who was talking to him. His own look said that he hoped Shepard had brought good news.

Udina seemed to have taken note of their entrance as he turned around saying, "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the Wards, an all out assault on Chora's Den. Do you know how many-" Udina stopped when he noticed Shepard's team behind him, taking particular note of the quarian standing directly beside Shepard. He voiced his question by saying, "Who's all this? And a quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?"

Shepard put his hands behind his back in a relaxed attention pose and smirked, saying, "Making your day, Ambassador." Shepard nodded toward the quarian to his right saying, "She has information linking Saren to the Geth."

"Really?" the Ambassador said, seeming to have calmed down after hearing that. He then turned to the quarian, saying, "Maybe you'd better start at the beginning, Miss…?" he ended off politely, letting her introduce herself.

"My name is Tali," she started, walking forward a bit, "Tali'Zorah nar Rayya"

"We don't see many quarians here," the Ambassador continued, "Why did you leave the Flotilla?"

"I was on my pilgrimage," she said, then elaborated saying, "My rite of passage into adulthood."

This was new to Shepard, and he couldn't help but say so. "I've never heard of this before. Do you mind explaining a bit?"

She nodded and continued, saying, "It's a tradition among my people. When we reach maturity, we leave the ships of our parents and our people behind. Alone, we search the stars, only returning to the Flotilla once we have discovered something of value. In this way, we prove ourselves worthy of adulthood."

"What kind of things do you look for?" Shepard asked.

"Resources, technology, even knowledge that could make life easier on the Flotilla. Through our Pilgrimage, we prove that we will contribute to the community rather than being a burden on our limited resources."

"And you said you found something about the Geth and Saren?"

She nodded again then said, addressing the room instead of just Shepard now, "During my travels, I began hearing reports of Geth. Since they drove my people into exile, the geth have never ventured beyond the Veil. I was curious," she said the last part rather lightheartedly, then continued, "I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world. I waited for one to become separated from its unit, then I disabled it and retrieved its memory core."

The Captain spoke up at this point, saying, "I thought the geth fried their memory cores when they died. Some kind of defense mechanism."

"If that's true, how did you do it?" Shepard asked her, remembering hearing a similar report about what Anderson had said.

"My people created the geth. If your quick, careful and lucky, small caches of data can sometimes be saved," her omni-tool light up at this while she continued, "Most of the core was, as you said, wiped clean, but I managed to salvage something from its audio banks." She turned to her omni-tool and went through a few things before they heard the audio that she spoke of.

"Eden Prime was a major victory," came the voice of Saren, "The beacon has brought us one step closer to the Conduit."

"That's Saren's voice!" the Captain exclaimed. "This proves that he was involved in the attack!"

While Shepard thought about the same thing when he first heard Saren say that Eden Prime was a victory, that wasn't what concerned him. He heard that last thing that Saren had said, and something about it bothered him greatly. "He said that 'the beacon brought him one step closer to finding the Conduit. Any idea what he's talking about?"

Anderson thought about it, saying, "Maybe its some kind of Prothean technology… like a weapon."

"Wait, there's more," Tali interjected, pulling back up her omni-tool, saying, "Saren wasn't working alone."

While the recording began playing through what they had heard Saren say before, Shepard was concerned about what Tali had said, that Saren wasn't alone. Right after Saren finished saying his part, they all heard a female voice speak up saying, "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."

After a few quick moments of silence, the Ambassador spoke up, "I don't recognize that other voice, the one talking about Reapers."

"I feel like I've heard that name before…" Shepard said, deep in thought. The moment he heard that voice say 'Reapers', something inside of him froze, and he felt something like a sense of foreboding like he did when the beacon activated and implanted the vision in his mind. But whatever it was, he just couldn't place it.

"According to the memory core," Tali said, having looked up something else on her omni-tool, "the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago. The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction, and then they vanished." Seeing that all eyes were on her and that everyone was listening intently, as though expecting something else, she said a little quietly, "At least, that's what the geth believe…"

"Sounds a little far-fetched," Udina said, not particularly believing that to be true.

But Shepard had listened to Tali closely, and while so did everyone else, he listened for a different reason. With every word Tali had said, Shepard was able to make more and more sense out of his vision. By the time she was done, he had a pretty good idea of what his vision was about. Albeit a lot of it was still unclear, he still had a better understanding of it.

"She's right. The vision on Eden Prime…" Shepard started, pulling his thoughts together in order to explain them, "I think I understand it now. I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers."

"The geth revere the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of organic life. And they believe Saren knows how to bring them back," Tali said, feeling more confident now that Shepard had said what he did.

"The Council's just going to love this," Udina said, almost seeming like he was looking forward to going to them with all of this and not looking forward to it at the same time.

"Will they even believe it? This is a lot to take in." Shepard already had little faith in any of the politicians he had met since arriving on the Citadel, but all this was a lot even for him to take in. While he doesn't doubt it, he still found it hard to accept right away, even with his visions.

"No matter what they think about the rest of this, those audio files prove Saren's a traitor," Anderson.

"Anderson's right. We need to present this to the Council," Udina said.

Wrex spoke up from the back, with everyone else who had sat back and listened to everything that had went on, "What about her, the quarian?"

"My name is Tali," said quarian reminded everyone with irritation obvious in her voice. She turned to Shepard and said, "You saw me in the alley, Commander. You know what I can do. Let me come with you."

While Shepard was all for another helping hand, he couldn't help but ask her, "What about your Pilgrimage?"

"The Pilgrimage proves that we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good," she explained, "What does it say about me if I turn my back on this? Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy. My Pilgrimage can wait."

Hearing the determination in her voice, and hearing that she wanted to honestly help for the 'greater good', as she put it, Shepard made up his man rather quickly. "I'll take all the help I can get."

She went to stand next to Shepard again, saying with delight, "Thanks. You won't regret this."

Captain Anderson looked around at the people assembled in the room around Shepard, taking in their appearances and potential. A turian C-Sec officer, a krogan mercenary, a quarian engineer, and two Alliance marines, three if you included Commander Shepard. It was an odd group, but the Captain could tell that they had the potential to be one hell of a team. Udina seemed to be noticing all of this as well, as he said, "Did everyone here help you with this discovery, Shepard? Are they still going to help you?"

Shepard looked back to the two men behind him, Garrus and Wrex. He already knew about Tali, as she had just asked to continue to help him, and he had a feeling Garrus would want to come along as well, but he had never asked Wrex. When he met their eyes, both Garrus and Wrex nodded their heads in confirmation, a look of determination in their eyes. Looking back to his right at Tali, he saw her nod too. He glanced at Alenko and Williams and already knew that they would be with him. This all gave him a feeling of confidence that he couldn't ignore, and he voiced that confidence in his response to the Ambassador.

"Yes, Ambassador, with Captain Anderson's permission, everyone here will help us to stop Saren."

"Given that the Council revokes his Spectre status, as well," Udina added, looking back at Anderson who had a slight smile on his face as he nodded, seeming to give his permission to Shepard's request for new crewmembers. He then turned back to Shepard, saying, "Anderson and I will go ahead and get things ready with the Council. Take a few minutes to collect yourselves, then meet us in the Tower."

With that, both the Ambassador and Captain Anderson left the office, Anderson giving them all a reassuring nod and smile again as he passed. As the door closed Shepard walked forward and leaned back against the railing that looked out from the office out onto the Presidium. He noticed everyone had gotten into their own comfortable positions as well.

"Looks like we have ourselves something of a team here," Shepard started, looking at everyone.

Alenko spoke up from where he stood, saying, "I don't think Saren's gonna know what hits him, sir."

"Ok, so, I've got to ask," Williams said from her place leaning against the wall she was at, "I heard Garrus's reason for doing this, and we all just heard the quar-, er, Tali's reason," she said, quickly correcting herself at seeing Tali turn her way at hearing someone else calling her 'the quarian', "But why are you wanting to help out?" she said, looking at Wrex from where he was leaning back against a pillar in the back of the room, and trying to avoid eye contact with Tali, who was standing of to the side, at Shepard's right again.

Wrex noticed the eyes that were on him now and replied with a shrug, "From the sound of it, there's going to be a lot of good fighting involved with this. And I want in on the fight."

He had to admit, Shepard was half expecting that answer. But he wasn't about to argue with it. "Well, if your going to fight, I'd rather have you on our side instead of against us, Wrex. Especially after how you fought back in Chora's Den." Wrex nodded to him in, as far as Shepard could tell, appreciation.

Hearing the name of Fist's club, Tali spoke up, saying, "I still can't believe I let Fist set me up like that. Thank you, again, for saving me."

Shepard nodded to her as Garrus said, "We're just glad we got to you in time. If not, we wouldn't know what we do now, and we wouldn't have any more leads. Especially with Fist being dead," he finished, taking a quick glance back at Wrex.

Wrex merely responded with, "I told you, I don't leave jobs half done."

"Even so, lets not do that again. We do not shoot unarmed prisoners. I understand it was a job, but now that the job is over, don't do it. Understood?" Shepard looked Wrex in the eye as he said this. Garrus made a point that if Tali didn't have the information, or if they had been too late, then the only other lead they might have had would have been Fist. That and Shepard didn't believe in killing when jail would do just fine.

Wrex stared hard back at Shepard before shrugging, muttering a "Sure, whatever."

The conversation died off from there and Shepard didn't think this group would do too well with a lot of awkward silences. Thinking ahead, he asked the group, "Does anyone have any unfinished business that needs to get done on station?" At their look to him, he explained saying, "We don't know how this next Council meeting is going to go. If we are given leave to go after Saren, then it might be a while before we come back here. So if you have anything you need to get taken care of, it would be best to take care of it now."

Wrex stood up from his leaning position saying, "Yeah, I got something I gotta do. Shouldn't take long."

Garus nodded and got up as well, saying "Yeah, me too, but Commander, are you sure that we'll be able to come with you? More thank likely you'll be sent out on an Alliance ship. I doubt they'll just let us along for the ride." Wrex stood behind him, close to the door and Shepard could tell Tali was looking at him too, waiting on his response as well.

Shepard looked at them, seeing them all thinking along the same lines as Garrus. But Shepard saw Anderson when he nodded to Shepard when he said what he did about these people helping them take down Saren, and Shepard knew that Captain Anderson stands by his word as best as he is able.

"Yes, Garrus, I'm sure. Even if we are sent out in an Alliance ship, like you said, it'll more than likely be on the Normandy, the ship we came in on," Shepard said, referring to Alenko, Williams and himself, "and if they do, the Captain Anderson will welcome you aboard. He understands what all this might mean for humanity and for the galaxy. He isn't one to turn away help where he can get it."

He saw Garrus nod to him and turned around as Wrex walked out the door. Having heard the name of the ship they would most likely be sent out on, and having their comms. synched with each other back in Chora's Den, they didn't need to stay and figure out where to meet up again.

Shepard turned to Tali to ask her what she might have left to do on the station, but she immediately told him, "I don't have anything I need to do, Commander. If it's alright, I'll just follow you and your team for now."

"Alright then, sounds good. What about you two? Got anywhere you need to be?" he asked his two fellow marines. When they said no, Shepard told them, "I have a couple things I need to take care of, so if you want to tag along, you can, but if you want to go hang out somewhere while we have a few minutes down time, go right ahead." When no one spoke up, they all left together, heading out onto the Presidium after paying a quick visit to the Volus and Elcore Embassy that was next to the Human Embassy.

* * *

As they came down the flight of stairs that lead to the Presidium, they heard someone with an accent call out, "Commander Shepard, could I have a moment of your time?" They looked to the left and found a dark skinned man in fairly decent clothes walking up to them.

"Commander Shepard," he greeted politely, but obviously having something weighting him down, "My name is Samesh Bhatia. Forgive the intrusion, but I have no where else to turn."

"Its no trouble. What can we do for you?"

"My wife was a marine," he started, rubbing his hands together. Shepard knew right away that something had happen when Bhatia said 'was', but decided not to interrupt and let him finish. "She was in the 212 on Eden Prime."

Recognizing where he had heard that last part before, Shepard heard Williams speak up as she walked up beside him. "Wait, the 212? Your wife was Serviceman Nirali Bhatia? I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, I served in her unit," she introduced.

Mr. Bhatia stepped forward and shook her hand, saying, "Chief Williams! It is a pleasure. Nirali spoke of you with great respect."

"I'm so sorry about your loss, Mr. Bhatia. Nirali was a good woman. What can we do for you?" she repeated Shepard's earlier question.

"I've requested that my wife's body be returned to me for cremation, but the military has refused my request."

Shepard asked, "Why did they refuse your request? There's got to be some reason."

"I don't know. All I know is that they have declared it impossible for my wife to be return her to me," he said, obviously upset with this, and Shepard could understand. But he really hoped that there was a good reason behind this, and that there was a good reason why they didn't tell Mr. Bhatia.

"We'll look into it. Who do we need to talk to?" Shepard asked.

"The man in charge of my case is Mr. Bosker. When I last saw him he was in the expensive bar over there," Mr. Bhatia said, pointed over to another set of stairs that Shepard had walked up before when he had met and spoke with Executor Palin.

Mr. Bhatia then bowed slightly, saying "Thank you for your time, Commander. I just want to give my wife a proper funeral, with the respect she deserves." Shepard bowed in return and turned, with his team, towards the stairs leading to the bar.

While they were walking along, Shepard turned to Williams, saying, "You alright, Chief?"

She didn't answer right off, which told him that this was bothering her. He didn't blame her. Her whole unit had died and she survived, and now she was helping he husband of one of her former comrades. That was a lot to take in. She seemed to be handling it as well as could be expected, but Shepard knew first hand that not everything is as it seems on the surface.

When she did answer, it started with a sigh before she said, "I'm not sure, Commander. I thought I was doing okay for a while, but seeing Mr. Bhatia just now… I guess it kinda brought some things back up."

Shepard nodded and chose his next words carefully, hoping to ease Williams mind somewhat. "Look, Chief… Ashley, I know that this is hard for you, but you've got a great opportunity here with Mr. Bhatia, a chance to bring him some peace. That's not something everyone's going to get."

By this point, they had made it to the door that lead into the bar, and were standing just outside. Alenko and Tali and stayed back a bit to let the two talk, knowing that this was a sensitive topic between the two. Alenko took this time to fill Tali in on what all had happened since arriving at Eden Prime, letting her know what Williams and Shepard were talking about.

Williams was looking down, thinking on what Shepard had told her. While she was thinking, Shepard continued, saying, "I'm not saying that doing this is going to make things go away, that things will all be better if we help this guy, but what I am saying is, that you can help him find some peace of mind, and it may help bring you some peace as well." She looked at Shepard now, and he finished by saying, "It won't make what happened go away, but it may help you live with it in the end."

Williams nodded slowly as he spoke, then said, "Yeah… maybe, maybe your right." She took a moment, then she stood straight, with determination in her eyes as she said, "I'm ready to go, sir. I won't him down." Seeing her determination, and hearing it in her voice, Shepard nodded to her and smiled. He looked to the other two and waved them back over as they made their way into the bar to find this guy, Bosker.

They found Mr. Bosker leaning against a column as though he was waiting for someone. He looked at them as they approached and stood straight, saying to the one person he recognized, "My goodness, your Commander Shepard. Your activities made for quite a briefing in the diplomatic corps. Is there something I can do to assist you?"

Does everyone know who I am here? Shepard thought before saying, "Yes, a man named Samesh Bhatia is having some trouble claiming his wife's body."

"Ah, Mr. Bhatia," Bosker started, rubbing the back of his neck, "A good man in an understandably frustrating position. I wish I could help him. Serviceman Nirali Bhatia died on Eden Prime, as Mr. Bhatia no doubt told you." Shepard nodded, confirming what Mr. Bosker said and letting him continue. "Her wounds are inconsistent with any type of weapon damage we've ever seen before. That is why her body is being held."

"You think her body might be dangerous, or contaminated?" Shepard queried.

"No, Commander, Nirali Bhatia is not dangerous. Her body is in fact extremely valuable to the Alliance. The test we are running may lead to better defenses against Geth attacks. Respectfully, Serviceman Bhatia may save more lives in death than she did in life."

Shepard could see how the Alliance could value the results of such research. With better defenses, there would be less victims, less men and women killed in action, less people like Jenkins… But Shepard also knew that if he had to choose between better defenses and giving a friend or family member a proper funeral, he would choose the funeral without a second thought.

"I understand what you're trying to do, but holding the body is wrong."

"But Commander, you of all people should understand how far we must go to protect humanity," Bosker said, almost sounding like he was pleading for Shepard's approval.

But that was something he wasn't going to get. Shepard was willing to do many things in order to do what was right, but one thing he always tried to live by with his decisions was that the ends didn't justify the means. There were some lines you just didn't cross.

"Not if we loose our humanity in the process. I'm out there fighting to stop crap like this!" Shepard said heatedly. Mr. Bosker seemed to flinch a bit at Shepard's tone, and then he let out a breath, giving in by saying, "Alright, Commander, you win. It was hard enough refusing Mr. Bhatia, I'm not going to risk an incident by refusing you. Tell Samesh that the body is being shipped back to Earth," making to leave, Bosker said, "I'll go now to see to it myself."

As he walked away, Shepard said, "Thank you for doing this Mr. Bosker. From Mr. Bhatia and myself." Bosker nodded to him as he walked out.

The four of them found themselves walking back up to Mr. Bhatia, who was waiting at where they first met him. As they got to him, he said, "Hello again. Has there been any word?"

Shepard answered him, saying, "I reminded Mr. Bosker what we're fighting for. Your wife is coming home."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Mr. Bhatia said, "Thank you. I will return home and begin my preparations." He looked down and said, "It does not bring me happiness, but it may bring me peace. Good-bye, Commander."

As he turned to walk away, Shepard looked to his left and met Williams eye. He nodded his head towards Mr. Bosker, and she stepped forward and said, "Samesh? I don't know if this helps, but your wife… Nirali loved you very much." Mr. Bhatia had turned back around and was listening. Williams smiled a bit as she then said, "She missed your cooking, and she would play recordings of you every night, before she went to sleep."

"I know. Ms. Williams. But thank you. It was nice to hear it again."

Looking to Shepard for a moment, seeing him nod very slightly, Williams asked, "Would you mind if I walked with you for a bit? It would be an honor to get to know the husband of Serviceman Nirali Bhatia."

Taken back a bit by what she said, Mr. Bhatia smiled, albeit bashfully, before saying, "It would be my pleasure, Ms. Williams."

As the two walked off, Shepard, Alenko and Tali watched, standing by a railing outside of the Embassy building near where a VI tour guide was stationed.

"That was really nice of you to help the both of them, Commander," Tali said, breaking the silence. Alenko agreed with her, saying, "Yeah it was."

Shepard smiled to himself a bit. It felt good to see Williams and Mr. Bhatia getting along like they were after what the both of them had gone through. Seeing people able to walk tall and smile together after suffering a loss really gave Shepard a warm feeling inside, as well as a general feeling of hope.

Alenko then asked Shepard, "You alright, Commander?" Shepard knew that Alenko was asking about his own feeling of loss, from Akuze and with Jenkins on Eden Prime. He wasn't too worried about being asked about that right then, so he answered honestly, saying, "Yeah, Kaiden. I think I'm good."

When Williams and Mr. Bhatia were nearly out of sight, Shepard turned to Alenko and Tali, saying, "Well, I still have a couple errands to run before we head to the Tower. You two still want to come along?" They both nodded, and then all three of them headed their own direction.

* * *

By the time Shepard had finished his errands, Williams was waiting for them at the entrance to the elevator that led up to the Citadel Tower. Walking up to her, she saluted them, more specifically, she saluted Commander Shepard, saying, "Thank you, Commander." Shepard returned the salute as she continued saying, "I owe you one for that, sir. That really did me some good."

He nodded to her with a smile, glad that he was able to help. The four of them made their way into the elevator and began their trip back up to the top of the Tower.

Williams was the first to speak, saying, "I can't wait to see the look on the Council's faces when they see evidence they can't just ignore."

"Especially after they cleared Saren of these same charges last time. This ought to be interesting," Shepard said with a smirk of his own. He really was looking forward to seeing the politicians realize that they were wrong.

However, Kaiden reminded them of the fact that this had taken a lot of time to try and accomplish. "Lets just hope it isn't too late. All this time we spent hunting for evidence gave Saren a nice head start."

"Good point. We'll just have to see what happens when they hear Tali's evidence," Shepard said as the elevator door opened. As they made their way up the stairs, Garrus joined them from where he had decided to wait and they made it all the way to the top. Captain Anderson met them at where he had waited the last time.

"Come on," he said, turned to walk while they followed, Shepard directly behind the Captain, "Udina is presenting the- Tali's evidence to the Council." Shepard wasn't sure who all caught the Captain's near slip up, but he did, and he was rather glad the Captain decided to correct himself before he realized what he had said.

"_Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit._"

"_And one step closer to the return of the Reapers._"

Udina stepped forward and pointed to the Council, saying, "You wanted proof? There it is."

The turian councilman spoke heatedly, saying, "This evidence is irrefutable, Ambassador. Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes."

"I recognize the other voice, the one speaking with Saren," the asari councilwoman spoke up, "Matriarch Benezia."

"Who's she?" Shepard asked. He and his team had just spent a good bit of time finding this evidence, and he wasn't going to sit this meeting out.

Fortunately, no one seemed to want him to, because no one said anything about him speaking up as the councilwoman answered, "Matriarch are powerful asari who are revered for their wisdom and experience. They serve as guides and mentors to our people. Matriarch Benezia is a powerful biotic and she had many followers. She will make a formidable ally for Saren."

More good news, Shepard thought. He had a feeling his team behind him were thinking something along those same lines, and he could tell by the way Anderson was resetting his stance that he was thinking that as well.

"I'm more interested in the Reapers," the salarian councilor said, then asked, "What do you know about them?"

It was Anderson who answered this time, saying, "Only what was extracted from the Geth's memory core. The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans, and then they vanished."

"The Geth believe the Reapers are gods, and Saren is the prophet for their return," Shepard added, remembering his vision from the beacon.

Anderson nodded then continued, "We think the Conduit is the key to bringing them back. Saren's searching for it. That's why he attacked Eden Prime."

"Do we even know what the Conduit is?" the salarian asked, sounding curious but almost doubtful.

Hearing that doubt, Shepard spoke up quickly saying, "Saren thinks it can bring back the Reapers. That's bad enough."

"Listen to what you're saying!" exclaimed the turian councilor, obviously having doubts of his own. "Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible. It has to be," he said, turning to his fellow council members, asking, "Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? How come we've found no trace of their existence? If they were real, we would have found something."

"I tried to warn you about Saren and you refused to listen to the truth!" Shepard almost yelled, tired of everything he had said and seen being ignored. "Do not make the same mistake again."

"This is different," the asari councilwoman said, still sounding like she wanted to avoid the infighting that was going on, "You proved Saren betrayed the Council. We all agree he's using the geth to search for the Conduit, but we don't really know why."

"We've just told you why!" Shepard actually yelled this time. He lowered his tone a bit before he continued, "Unless you know something we don't, this is the only explanation we have, and if it's true, then Saren is trying to bring back the Reapers." Anderson had put his hand on Shepard's shoulder at this point, stopping him from going on.

"The Reapers are obviously a myth, Commander," the salarian said undeterred, as though he had come to that conclusion through facts of his own, "A convenient lie to cover Saren's true purpose. A legend he is using to bend the geth to his will."

"50,000 years ago the Reapers wiped out all galactic civilization," Shepard said, trying one last time to convince the Council, "If Saren gets to the Conduit, it will happen again."

"Saren is a rogue agent on the run for his life. He no longer has the rights or resources of a Spectre. The Council has stripped him of his position," the turian councilor said, as though that settled any fears or arguments.

But Ambassador Udina had been quiet long enough, and voiced his opinion on that matter, saying, "That's not good enough! You know he's hiding somewhere in the Traverse, send your fleet in!"

"A fleet can not track down one man," the salarian councilor said, dismissively, and Shepard couldn't help but agree with him. The larger a group sent after one person, the harder it would be to find them. A smaller group, on the other hand, or a well-trained team would be a perfect choice in finding one person, especially a former Spectre.

However, Udina still wanted at least some help from the Cidatel fleet. "A fleet could secure the entire region. Keep the Geth from attacking anymore of our colonies."

"Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus Systems. We won't be dragged into a galactic confrontation over a few dozen human colonies," the turian councilman argued.

By this time, Shepard could see where all this was going. This had ended up being a political argument that was going nowhere. Saren had, in fact, lost his Spectre status, but what he was doing was being ignored, and the human colonies that are still in danger of attack would be receiving no help from the Council's fleet. This definitely wasn't looking good. Thinking quickly, hoping to think of something that could help them, Shepard realized that despite all that, who would be sent after Saren had yet to be decided. While he seemed to have what it took for a team that could go after Saren, Shepard doubted they would just send him and his group just because they asked for it. They would have to have a reason to send them.

And that's when Shepard remembered what they told him back on the Normandy before Eden Prime, before Nihlus died and before this case against Saren. The Council was considering him for Spectre status. If he was a Spectre, he could go after Saren with whoever he wanted at his side, including the group that was with him now. Up until now, Shepard hadn't been able to take the time to think on whether he liked the idea of being the first human Spectre. But now, it was that or risk letting Saren go on and find the Conduit, and in turn bring back the Reapers. Shepard's feelings on whether he liked it or not would have to wait.

"I can take Saren down," Shepard said, loud and clear, interrupting the arguing and bring their attention to his point.

Apparently, the asari councilwoman saw where he was going by saying that and agreed, saying, "The Commander's right. There is a way that doesn't require fleets or armies."

Immediately, seeing where this was heading himself, the turian councilor said, "No! It's too soon. Humanity is not ready for the responsibilities that come with joining the Spectres."

It was now or never, Shepard thought before he said, "You don't have to send a fleet into the Traverse and the Ambassador gets his human Spectre. Everybody's happy."

Looking amongst themselves, each council member nodded their heads, the turian councilor being the last and rather hesitant when he did. They each pressed something on their personal terminals in front of them before the asari said, "Commander Shepard. Step forward."

Looking over to Captain Anderson, who nodded with a small smile, Shepard stepped forward to where the Ambassador had been standing at the end of the podium. He couldn't help but notice that there were a number of people around on balconies and off to the sides, all of which were now watching the current Council meeting. Shepard turned around for a second and looked behind him. There he saw both Williams and Alenko looking at him, both standing tall and giving him proud smiles. He also noticed Garrus standing in a similar manner with what appeared to be a shocked expression on his face, though Shepard was no expert on reading turian expressions. Tali was next to them, and while it was hard to tell what her expression was from her mask, her body posture showed that she was standing in what she hoped was an appropriate position for such an event. Just before he turned back around to face the Council, Shepard noticed Wrex was in the very back, by the stairs and leaning against the wall. Shepard found that he couldn't help but feel encouraged by the current atmosphere of the place, as well as having a group he trusted there watching, almost as though they approved of what was happening. He stood in attention where Udina had been standing, waiting for the Council to speak.

The asari councilor then said, "It is the decision of the Council that you be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel."

"Spectres are not trained, but chosen," the salarian councilor spoke up, "Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle. Those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."

The asari councilor started again, "Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will."

The turian Spectre decided to join in now, saying, "Spectres bear a great burden. They are the protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold."

The asari finished the speech with, "You are the first human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species."

Shepard nodded his appreciation, not sure what he should say other than, "What's my first mission?"

"We are sending you into the Traverse after Saren. He is a fugitive from justice, so you are authorized to use any means necessary," the salarian councilor said.

"Any ideas where we can find him?" Shepard asked, grateful that his idea worked and that they agreed to send him after Saren instead of another assignment.

The turian councilor answered him, saying, "We will forward any relevant information to Ambassador Udina."

"This meeting of the Council is adjourned," the asari said, finishing the meeting. Shepard bowed his head slightly to the Council as he turned back to the Ambassador and Captain Anderson.

Anderson immediately came up to him and shook his hand heartily, saying, "Congratulations, Commander."

"We've got a lot of work to do, Shepard," Udina said, catching both of their attentions, "You'll need a ship, a crew, supplies…"

"You'll get access to special equipment and training now," Anderson said, still excited over his now former XO becoming a Spectre, "You should go down to C-Sec Academy and speak to the C-Sec requisitions officer."

"Anderson, come with me," Udina said, still following his own train of thought, "I'll need your help to set all this up." The Ambassador nodded to Shepard as he left with the Captain behind him.

Shepard turned and walked to the rather odd group still standing back by the stairs.

"Not even a thank you from the Ambassador," Williams said, obviously a bit upset with the politics that occurred, despite the Spectre status results the Commander got.

Tali spoke up next, saying, "You would think he'd have been more grateful after all that has happened."

Shepard shrugged, not really expecting a thank you for all of that. "We haven't done anything yet, so its not too surprising."

"'We', Commander?" Garrus asked, having noted Shepard's choice of words. "I noticed you said 'we' when talking to the Council too. It's you who is the Spectre in charge of taking Saren down."

"I can't do it alone, Garrus. Like I said before, I'm going to need all the help I can get. That is, if you all still want to now that I'm a Spectre," Shepard said, leaving that last statement for them to provide an answer.

Garrus answered right away saying, "I'm not backing out now, Commander."

Williams and Alenko shared a look before Williams said, "We're in, if you'll have us, Commander."

Shepard nodded to them then looked over to Tali. She nodded, saying, "Me too, Commander."

He then looked back to Wrex, who chuckled and said, "This should be fun. Count me in."

Shepard couldn't help but smile, grateful for the group that was around him. With this group, he thought, remembering what Alenko had said before in the Ambassador's office, Saren really wouldn't know what hit him. After a few moments of talking about where to go from there, the group decided to make their way to the C-Sec academy, where Anderson said there was a requisitions officer who would have Spectre grade weaponry and supplies.

* * *

_Well, here it is. I do hope you all enjoyed this. I went back and did some work here at the end. I honestly havent had to do much to edit this chapter like I have with the other ones. For the most part I was pretty satisfied with this one. Any thoughts?_

_Anyway, i hope to have the next, and hopefully last, chapter up within the next week or two. I'm feeling good about writing again, so it should be pretty soon. At the end of the last chapter, be it the next chapter i post, or the next two, I will explain how i plan to write out the rest of the story. But this story is only meant to get the Normandy started on her journey after Saren. _

_So i hope you enjoyed this one, and please comment! _

_-'halfbreed'_


	6. Chapter 6

_Yes! Finally! The last chapter in this section! I can't tell you all how much i enjoyed writing this particular chapter, especially the last section. I didn't think i would enjoy it this much. Now understand that I am NOT stopping with writing out my characters experience throughout the game. However, this will be the last chapter for this part of the story. If you dont already know how i am writing this out, then i will explain at the end of this chapter. _

_So, instead of going on and on again, here is the story. Enjoy and comment!_

* * *

_To: Commander Shepard _

_From: Captain Anderson _

_Subject: (none)_

_Shepard,_

_Meet me and Ambassador Udina where the Normandy is docked. You will be filled in once you get there._

_-Anderson_

_

* * *

_

"That from the Captain, sir?" Williams said as they walked away from the requisitions office, Garrus and Alenko walking with them, Tali and Wrex waiting in the main room of the C-Sec Academy. Shepard nodded to her as they regrouped and he led the group towards the large elevator in the center of the room that would take them to the Normandy's dock. Despite the elevator being larger than most of the others on the Citadel, it was still a rather tight fit for the diverse group.

"Just got a message from Captain Anderson," Shepard said, hoping to distract everyone from complaining about the tight space, "We're to meet him and Udina at the Normandy." He turned towards the non-Alliance members of the group and said, "There is no telling whether we'll be leaving with the Captain on the Normandy or not, so just sit tight until we know how we'll be getting around."

Everyone nodded as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, revealing the Normandy, and just outside of it the Captain and the Ambassador. Shepard walked up to him while everyone else stood back slightly, some of them going to the side to lean against the railing. To be more specific, it was Tali who lead the way to the railing as she looked at the state-of-the-art ship before her in awe. Shepard saw Alenko and Garrus walk up behind her, Garrus also staring at the ship and Alenko telling the two of them what he knew about it.

This was all Shepard was able to pay attention to as the Ambassador spoke to him, saying, "I've got big news for you, Shepard. Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy. The ship is yours now."

Shepard was taken aback when he heard that. He had expected to be allowed to use the Normandy to track down Saren, but with Captain Anderson in charge of it. He looked to said Captain who only crossed his arms and nodded.

"She's quick and quiet and you know the crew. Perfect ship for a Spectre. Treat her well, Commander."

This just didn't sound right to Shepard. "What's going on, Captain?"

"You needed your own ship," Anderson said, "A Spectre can't answer to anyone but the Council. And its time for me to step down."

If Shepard didn't buy that before, then the sigh Anderson gave after he finished talking kept him from believing it now. He voiced his concern, "Come clean with me Captain. You owe me that much."

Anderson nodded, knowing that Shepard was referring to the time they worked together and the running around that Shepard had to do to expose Saren, nothing more. He knew Shepard wouldn't say that using his new Spectre status, and that was why he answered vaguely, but honestly.

"I was in your shoes twenty years ago, Shepard. They were considering me for the Sepctres."

Shepard recalled what all he had been hearing during his search on the Citadel, including when they talked with Harkin in Chora's Den. So maybe Harkin was telling the truth after all. But Shepard wasn't fully sure why the Captain wouldn't have told him.

"You could've told me, sir. Why didn't you ever mention this?"

"What was I supposed to say?" Anderson responded, sounding agitated or angry. "I could've been a Spectre but I blew it? I failed, Commander." He let out a breath and continued, "It's not something I'm proud of. Ask me later, and I'll tell you the whole story. For now, all you need to know is I was sent on a mission with Saren, and he made sure the Council rejected me." Anderson looked Shepard in the eyes again, saying, "I had my shot. It came and went. Now you have a chance to make up for my mistakes."

"I won't let you down, Captain," Shepard said, wanting to be careful with what he said from now on. He felt bad making the Captain relive that, seeing as how bad if affected him. Even so, Shepard meant it when he said he wouldn't let him down.

"Saren's gone. Don't even try to find him," Anderson continued, moving things back to the main point, "But we know what he's after: the Conduit. He's got his Geth scouring the Traverse looking for clues."

Udina spoke back up, saying, "We had reports of geth in the Feros system shortly before our colony there dropped out of contact. And there have been sightings around Noveria."

"Find out what Saren was after on Feros and Noveria," Anderson said, making this feel like just another mission briefing, at least to Shepard. "Maybe you can figure out where the Conduit is before he does."

While Shepard hoped that was the case, he also remembered that it wasn't just Saren and the Geth they should be worried about. "The Reapers are the real threat."

"I'm with the Council on this one, Shepard," Udina stated before Shepard could say anything else, "I'm not sure they even exist."

"But if they do exist," Anderson said quickly, "The Conduit is the key to bringing them back. Stop Saren from getting the Conduit and we stop the Reapers from returning."

Nodding to Anderson, Shepard looked back to Udina and asked, "Do we have any other leads?"

"Yes, one other. Matriarch Benezia, the other voice in that recording?" Shepard nodded to show that he was following, "She has a daughter, a scientist who specializes in the Protheans. We don't know if she's involved, but it might be a good idea to try and find her, see what she knows. Her name's Liara, Dr. Liara T'Soni. We have reports she was exploring an archeological dig on one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau cluster."

So, three solid leads. That's more than Shepard really expected to have at first. While there are two systems that might hold some clue as to Saren or the Conduits whereabouts, there is one person that might hold information on Saren's Matriarch ally. Shepard didn't really know too much about either area. Noveria he knew the least about, and wherever this Dr. T'Soni is at, Shepard doubted he knew much about that either. The other place though, Feros, and the colony Udina mentioned, he did know a little about. The name of the colony was Zhu's Hope, a colony that's still trying to set its roots and grow. If they had dropped out of contact after reporting geth being nearby, then they were most likely under attack. They would need help.

"The colonists on Feros might still be alive," Shepard said, looking to Anderson for his option.

Anderson merely said, "Its your decision, Commander. You're a Spectre now. You don't answer to us."

Hearing his Captain, or better said his former Captain, say that sounded weird to Shepard, but he knew that it was the truth. As he was nodding his understanding to Anderson, Udina spoke up saying, "But your actions still reflect on Humanity as a whole. You make a mess and I get stuck cleaning it up."

Deciding not to get into an argument with the Ambassador, Shepard said, with as little sarcasm as he could manage to sound honest, "I'll try not to make things any harder on you, Ambassador."

"Glad to hear it, Commander. Remember, you were a human long before you were a Spectre." Looking back towards Anderson, Udina said, "I have a meeting to get to. Captain Anderson can answer any questions you may have."

Shepard waited until the Ambassador had disappeared into the elevator before he turned to Anderson and asked, "How are you holding up, Captain?"

"Honestly? This isn't how I pictured my career coming to an end. Pushing papers really isn't my thing."

Laughing a bit, Shepard said, "Don't think its my thing either, Captain."

Anderson smiled and shook his head. Turning serious, he said, "But you're the one who can stop Saren. I believe in you, Shepard. If that means I have to step aside, so be it."

Shepard was taken aback by what his former Captain said, and at the same time he was very flattered. It was an honor to know that this man, whom he looked up to, trusted him that much and was willing to give up his military career because of that trust. If Shepard needed any more reason not to let Anderson down, this was it.

However, despite all that, Shepard felt that he had to ask something, something that was personal to the Captain. "Sir, tell me what happened with you and Saren twenty years ago."

Anderson signed and nodded, before he started. "Its close to twenty years ago now. Ambassador Goyle was our representative here on the Citadel. Like Udina, she wanted to get a human into the Spectres," Anderson had looked down at this point, took a breath and then said, "She choose me. The Council sent Saren to keep an eye on me and evaluate my performance. Just like they sent Nihlus to keep tabs on you."

Shepard nodded to show that he was following. Anderson began to pace while telling his story. "We had intel on a rogue scientist being funded by batarian interests. He was trying to set up a facility to develop illegal AI technology out in the Verge. Alliance Intel had done all the work, but the Council wanted a Spectre involved. We compromised: I was assigned to help Saren in his investigation. We tracked the scientist to a refining facility on Camala. He was hidden away somewhere inside, protected by an army of batarian mercenaries."

The Commander couldn't help but notice the change in demeanor while Anderson spoke. When he started, Anderson seemed distant and unnerved from having to relive this part of his past, which Shepard could understand, as Anderson had said it was a moment he wasn't proud of. As he began to get into that one mission, though, Shepard could just see the man who was on Camala, tracking down this rogue scientist. The Captain was precise with the details of the mission, and he almost had more of a bounce in his step while he paced. This was the Captain Anderson that earned the respect of his men, the respect of Commander Shepard.

"The plan was simple: sneak into the plant, capture the scientist, sneak back out. Quick, quiet, and a minimum of bloodshed," Anderson said, as he stopped pacing and stood back in front of Shepard.

"I'm guessing things didn't go as planned."

Anderson nodded and explained, "Saren and I split up to cover more ground. Then, about halfway through the mission, there was a massive explosion in the refinery core. Officially, it was labeled an accident. But I think Saren detonated it on purpose to draw off the enemy guards."

Shepard shook his head, not wanting to know the answer to his next question, "How many casualties?"

"The explosion tore the refinery to shreds. The whole place was on fire. Black chemical clouds poured out into the atmosphere. Nobody inside survived. There was a camp for the workers and their families nearby. Between the fires and the toxic fumes, the final death count was over five hundred. Mostly civilians."

"Five _hundred_? Five hundred dead just to get to one man?" Shepard asked in disbelief.

Anderson just nodded gravely, then said, "Saren didn't care. The target was eliminated. Mission accomplished. And I ended up taking all the blame. That ended all talk of me joining the Spectres."

"Saren caused the explosion," Shepard said, "How'd he pin it on you?"

"In his report, Saren accused me of blowing his cover. He said it was my fault the guards were ready for us. He claimed that's why it turned into a massacre. Saren's report was all the proof the Council needed to kill my chances of becoming a Spectre."

Yet another time when Saren abused his power and then hid behind the Council. This one had costs hundreds of lives, like Eden prime. Shepard was going to do his best to keep any more lives from being lost or ruined because of Saren.

Shepard turned and looked at the people behind him, all of who seemed to have been listening to everything that had been said, and then he looked towards the Normandy. He was nervous, he wouldn't deny that, but he also knew what was at stake. He also knew that he wasn't alone. While it may be a rather odd group he had standing beside him, he knew it was a tough one, and he could only hope that it would be enough.

Anderson watched Shepard while he looked to his new team and his new ship. He could tell the Commander was obviously in deep thought. After all, he had a lot on his shoulders now. Luckily, he had others to help with that burden. Anderson had already planned to allow Shepard's new team onto the Normandy had he still been in command of it, though now it didn't matter. With Shepard as a Spectre, and the Normandy now his, Shepard could have whoever he saw fit on the Normandy, and on his team.

After a few silent moments, Anderson decided to break the silence. "Is there anything else, Commander?"

Shepard looked back from the Normandy to his former Captain, "No, sir. In fact, I should be going."

Anderson stuck out his hand, saying, "Good luck out there, Commander. You'll need it." Shepard took his hand and gave his a firm shake, thanking him. Anderson then said, "I'll be here if you need anything, Commander."

Shepard nodded to him before turning around and addressing the people behind him. "Alright everyone. Lets head aboard and get everyone settled. We take off within the hour." And with that, they all began to walk along the docking ramp and towards the Normandy's airlock and decontamination cycle, Anderson behind them, still on the dock, staying to watch the Normandy depart.

* * *

When the decontamination cycle ended, the group of five stepped into the ship and turned right towards the CIC with the three Alliance marines leading the way. They were met with curious glances and minor whispers, but Shepard had expected that. After all, he was being followed by non-Alliance people, all of them armed to some degree. But the Commander continued heading towards the CIC, and the elevator behind it.

As they walked around the Galaxy Map and through the doors that led down stairs towards the elevator, Shepard spoke over his shoulder to the group, "We are going to go down to Engineering first. There are personnel lockers there that each of you can have to store your armor, weapons and some personal items. From there, we'll find a place for all of you to get settled in."

He stopped at the elevator and turned to Williams and Alenko and said, "If you two could wait for the elevator to come back up, I will take down our newest crew members first. That way we can avoid another tight elevator ride." When they nodded their consent, Shepard motioned for the other three behind them to follow him into the elevator.

During the elevators descent, Garrus turned to Shepard and said, "Commander, while I appreciate you allowing us to come with you, I don't want to be a freeloader. If there is anything you would allow me to do while on the ship, then I would gladly take the assignment."

Before Shepard could respond, Tali also spoke up, "Me too, Commander. It would only be right for us to do our part while being a member of your crew."

At this point the doors had opened to the Engineering level. Before Shepard responded, he led the group over to the lockers he had spoke of earlier, telling each of them to pick a locker of their own. While they chose and began to put their weapons and any personal items into the lockers, Shepard looked around the cargo hold and thought about what he could have the new crew do. At one point, his eyes fell onto the Mako at the right end of the room. Usually, they only had someone run a diagnostic on the Mako right before a mission with it, or if it hadn't be used in a week or more. If someone wanted something to do…

"Would one of you like to be assigned to maintain and repair the Mako?" Shepard asked, turning towards the three behind him.

Garrus looked over at the landrover and nodded, saying, "Sure, I can do that."

Shepard waved his arm towards the Mako and said, "Its all yours then. I'll see to it that you get any clearance needed to use the terminal there for diagnostics and access to any parts you would need to work on it. Just make sure it keeps running smooth and its weaponry and shields are working."

Garrus nodded and made his way over to the Mako, looking it over and taking basic scans with his own omni-tool until he had access to the terminal. Shepard looked back at the other two and began to think about what they could do.

"That's about the only thing I can think of that would need to be done. Do you two have any preferences on what you would like to do?"

Wrex merely shrugged and said, "I'm good with just doing nothing, so long as we get to fight later."

Shrugging, Shepard said, "I guess that's fine with me. Like I said, I can't think of anything else anyway." Wrex nodded and walked off to the side, passing both Williams and Alenko, who had just gotten out of the elevator.

While they began putting their own weapons and their armor into their lockers, Shepard looked at Tali. Tali shook her head slightly and said, "If it's all the same to you, Commander, I'd rather be doing something. I wouldn't feel right working for you and not helping somewhere while on the ship."

"Fair enough. Is there anything in particular that you would like to do?"

"Well, I could do work in the engine room, if I'm allowed to, of course," she finished rather quickly.

"I don't see why not if its what you want. If you will, introduce yourself to our Chief Engineer, Adams. Let him know that I sent you. He'll be behind those doors there, where the drive core is," Shepard said, pointing towards the doors on either side of the elevator.

She looked that way and then back to Shepard, saying, "Alright. Uh… Would it be all right if I took a look around the Normandy? So that I can know where everything is, I mean…"

Thinking about that, Shepard asked, "You probably do need to know that, don't you?" He chuckled a bit, then said, "If you could wait for a while, I'll show you around myself. I have one or two things that I need to do right quick. Once we've left the Citadel, I'll come down and show you around. Garrus and Wrex too, since they'll need to know where everything is as well."

She agreed and left for the drive core to introduce herself to Engineer Adams. Shepard turned towards the two marines who were now in their casual uniform. He noticed that Alenko seemed a bit pale. "You alright, Kaiden?"

"Just a headache, Commander, its nothing to worry about," Alenko replied, trying to just pass it off. But Shepard wanted to err on the side of caution.

"You should go and see Dr. Chakwas, just to be safe. That's an order, Lieutenant," Shepard said before Alenko could protest. He nodded and began making his way towards the elevator. Shepard looked at Williams and asked if she was all right. When she said she was good, Shepard nodded to her and left to follow Alenko, heading towards the cockpit to talk with Joker and get the Normandy on her way.

* * *

"I heard about what happened to Captain Anderson," Joker said as Shepard came up behind him, out of his armor and now in his own casual uniform, the same as everyone else was wearing. "Survives a hundred battles, and then gets taken down by backroom politics."

"Another reason why I hate politics," Shepard replied, then he told Joker where they were planning to go, letting him access the coordinates and start ship preparations.

As Joker nodded and started inputting the information into the panels in front of him, he said, "Just watch your back, Commander. Things go bad on this mission, and you're next on their chopping block."

Shepard was quiet for a few moments before he responded. "Captain Anderson should be the one in charge. Its like I'm stealing the ship from him."

Joker snorted and then said, "Yeah, the Captain got screwed, but its not like you could've stopped it. No one's blaming you. Everyone on this ship's behind you, Commander. One hundred percent." Joker looked down at one of his panel, pressed an icon and said, "Intercom's open. If you've got anything you want to say to the crew, now's the time."

"I'm not exactly good with words, Joker," Shepard said apprehensively.

Joker merely shook his head and said, "Yeah, but it can't hurt, can it?"

Shepard just gave Joker a look for a second before he gave in and leaned towards the Intercom, "This is Commander Shepard speaking. We have our orders: find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to you, crew. This mission isn't going to be easy."

He took a moment to think of what to say next, deciding to go with the beginning. "This began with an attack on a human settlement in the Traverse. But we know Saren won't stop there. His Geth armies aren't going to stay on the far fringes of Citadel space. Our enemy knows we're coming. When we go into the Traverse, Saren's followers will be waiting for us. But we'll be ready for them, too."

He looked to his right where Joker sat and saw his ever present smile, if at all possible, grow while he continued to input ship prep information into his controls. Thinking on how to end the speech, Shepard finally said, "Humanity needs to do this. Not just for our own sake, but for the sake of every other species in Citadel space. Saren must be stopped, and I promise you all… we will stop him."

Shepard reached over as he said the last sentence and closed off the Intercom. Joker looked at him and said, "Well said, Commander. Captain would be proud."

Shepard looked ahead for a second, out the Normandy's windows. That's when he noticed something to his left. He could just barely recognize the form of Captain Anderson standing on the dock, looking at the Normandy. Seeing him out there gave Shepard more encouragement than the Captain probably realized.

Turning to Joker for a second, and then turned around to walk towards the back of the ship, saying, "The Captain gave up everything so we could have this chance. We can't fail."

Joker never looked back at Shepard as he talked, instead looking at his screens and just listening. As Shepard said what he did, he looked to the light showing the connection that he had set up at the beginning of Shepard's speech with Captain Anderson's omni-tool. He smiled even more than he had during Shepard's speech as he said with enthusiasm, "Yes, sir!" and then cut the connection to the Captain's omni-tool, moving on to get the Normandy clearance for lift-off.

* * *

Anderson merely stood there the whole time, looking over what was his ship, knowing that she was to be leaving soon. He was rather surprised when his omni-tool chirped to say that he had an incoming message or transmission. He activated it and was again surprised when he saw that it was a transmission from the Normandy's bridge, more specifically from Joker. He accepted it, but before he said anything he heard Joker say, _"Yeah, but it can't hurt, can it?"_ and after a moment heard Shepard begin speaking to the crew.

He put his arm down and merely listened to the Commander's speech, standing in attention, looking at the Normandy, directly at the bridge where he knew the windows were. During the Commander's speech, he could help but feel inspired and encouraged himself. Shepard could give quite the speech, he thought, even though he hated to give them. Anderson chuckled to himself as he thought that.

"_Well said, Commander. Captain would be proud."_

And that he was, but before he could say so, giving a surprise to the Commander this time, he heard what Shepard said as his voice started to sound far off.

"_The Captain gave up everything so we could have this chance. We can't fail."_

Anderson beamed with pride at his former XO, at his determination and loyalty. They couldn't have chosen a better man than Shepard. He prayed that God would see them all through what ever happened, Shepard and his crew, human and non-human. He heard Joker say, "_Yes, sir!_" and then the connection was cut. The ship's docking clamps released and Anderson stood tall and gave the Normandy a firm salute as the Normandy left the Citadel and made its way into the Traverse.

* * *

_Well, there it is. I do hope that some has been enjoying reading this. I will plan on writing even more when i can, but i will not be giving any dates or time limits. Usually when i give myself a time limit like a week or so, life starts to get really busy and i dont get anything posted in that time. _

___Do please comment and say what you will. I enjoy writing, but it wouldnt hurt to hear some feedback._

___Now for me to explain how i am writing all of this out. This will be the last part of the beginning part of the story. However, I will be posting many more stories that span through the Mass Effect story. The main parts of the story, Feros, Therum, Noveria, Ilos and then back to the Citadel, will be posted as separate stories and in that specific order. All other missions, like Pinnacle Station, Dr. Saleon and Wrex's Family Armor, among a lot of other side missions, will be posted as short stories, and all of them will be by themselves. Some will be longer than others, but they will be posted separately with the idea of keeping it as a short story. There will also be some extra interactions between crew members while onboard the Normandy, and these may very well be posted as short stories and one-shots as well, though i have not made up my mind on that just yet. _

___So, any thoughts on the story or how the other parts will be written? Please, by all means, comment and say something, good or bad, say what you will. Until next time!_

___-halfbreed_


End file.
